North Michigan News

On May 2, 2024, the Trust the Science Act, a bill supported by Representative Jack Bergman, successfully passed the House of Representatives. The legislation aims to permanently delist the gray wolf in the lower 48 states, transferring control of wolf conservation to individual states and preventing judicial review of this decision.

In a statement, Rep. Jack Bergman expressed his support for the bill, saying, "The gray wolf population has successfully recovered, and it’s time to trust the years of scientific evidence which show that wolf management can be best left to folks in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. States are better equipped to manage our gray wolf populations than the federal government, and I’m proud to have cosponsored this important legislation."

The bill comes in response to the thriving gray wolf populations across different geographic regions. In November 3, 2020, the Trump Administration removed the gray wolf as a protected species under the ESA in the lower 48 United States. However, this decision was later vacated by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in February 2022. The Trust the Science Act seeks to reinstate the 2020 final rule and exempt it from judicial review.

For more details on the Trust the Science Act and its implications, interested individuals can access the full text of the bill for further information.