Now that Obama is in office, one of the arguably more minor decisions he'll have to make is whether to reverse the Bush Administration's recent removal of gray wolves from the endangered species list in a handful of Western states. Some groups claim the wolves have not recovered sufficiently in these areas, and that the timing of the removal--roughly just a week before Bush left office--was a gift to conservative advocacy groups who see the wolf as a threat to area ranchers, fearing a sudden rash of wolf killings now that the ban has been lifted.
When asked about the controversy last week, Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said "the president-elect will review all 11th-hour regulations and will address them once he is president."
I'm torn. I'd like to celebrate the fact that certain wolf populations are no longer on the brink of extinction, if that is in fact true, and yet I'm also aware of the frustration greater numbers of wolves can cause ranchers and farmers. Of course, I don't really trust much the Bush administration did. I do, however, think Obama's team will be more pragmatic about this.
Either way, we need to be more creative in learning to live with our animal cousins.
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