Delisting of Mexican wolf

(a)

Findings

The Congress finds the following: (1)The Mexican wolf population has increased for 9 consecutive years, growing by at least 11 percent in 2024. (2)At the end of 2024, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service documented a presence of at least 286 wild Mexican wolves and approximately 350 captive Mexican wolves. (3)The United States Mexican Wolf population is thriving and will meet its recovery goals for gene diversity, population growth, and abundance. (4)The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has repeatedly moved Mexican wolf recovery goalposts through amended recovery plans, revised population and genetic objectives, and reduced mitigation opportunities. (5)Current United States Fish and Wildlife recovery strategies and goals encompass not only the Mexican wolf population in the United States, but also in Mexico. (6)Americans in the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area bear the brunt of a rapidly growing United States Mexican wolf population without any chance of recovery because of failing conservation activities in Mexico, a foreign country. (7)Mexican wolves in the United States routinely kill livestock, pose serious safety risks to humans and pets, excessively prey upon game animals, and reduce recreational opportunities. (8)Depredation of cattle, horses, and other livestock by Mexican wolves financially burdens American farmers and ranchers living in and near the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area. (9)Rather than streamline Mexican wolf depredation evidentiary standards to ensure ranchers are properly compensated for livestock losses, the Wildlife Services division of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service imposed for a year a new standard requiring that subcutaneous hemorrhaging be present on carcasses as a condition of confirming that an animal was killed by a Mexican wolf. (10)Confirming that livestock were killed by Mexican wolves is often impossible under the newly adopted evidentiary standard because livestock grazing areas in and near the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area are often thousands of acres in size, depredations are commonly only discovered days after they occur, scavengers often devour livestock carcasses along with depredation evidence, and subcutaneous hemorrhaging remains preset for a short period of time following depredation. (11)Requiring evidence of subcutaneous hemorrhaging is inconsistent with other widely accepted depredation evidentiary standards like bite marks, tracks, and signs of struggle, and significantly reduces the ability for livestock owners to be made whole financially after suffering losses through Mexican wolf depredation. (12)The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s opaque depredation evidentiary standards are not subject to a public notice and comment process but are nevertheless blindly adopted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. (13)The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to take or approve sufficient lethal removal actions against Mexican wolves despite the deaths, injuries, and damage caused by Mexican wolves leading to at least 2 counties within the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area declaring a public disaster and emergency, and at least 1 Tribal government formally supporting such declaration (b)

Delisting of Mexican wolf

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is removed from the lists of threatened species and endangered species, as applicable, that are published pursuant to section 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533). (c)

Nullification of rules relating to Mexican wolf

The following final rules issued by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service with respect to the Mexican wolf shall have no force or effect: (1)The final rule titled Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Status for the Mexican Wolf (80 Fed. Reg. 2488; published January 16, 2015). (2)The final rule titled Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revision to the Nonessential Experimental Population of the Mexican Wolf (87 Fed. Reg. 39348; published July 1, 2022). (d)

Bifurcation of Mexican wolf population criteria

If the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is listed as a threatened species or an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, may not reference or otherwise consider— (1) the status of the recovery of the Mexican wolf in Mexico in developing or implementing under section 4(f) of that Act (16 U.S.C. 1533(f)) a plan for the Mexican wolf; or (2) the status of the Mexican wolf in Mexico in determining under section 4(c) of that Act (16 U.S.C. 1533(c)) whether the Mexican wolf should be— (A) changed in status from an endangered species to a threatened species; (B) changed in status from a threatened species to an endangered species; or (C) removed from the lists of threatened species and endangered species, as applicable, that are published pursuant to section 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533).