In 2020, Trump gave responsibility for managing wildlife populations back to the states. Now one might argue that this is the right thing to do, after all it is democracy, but is it?
Many of the states in the USA are horrifically gerrymandered, with some having a small minority overruling the great majority. There are many intentional ways that this is done (republicans have been very good at it over time – there are been 2 times in recent years where democrats got more votes but lost.
Here is a simple way of me explaining this.
Imagine an area of 10 square miles in a rural part of Texas USA, there might be 2 farmers and they are both republicans, so they vote for a republican. 50 miles down the road there is a city. Here in Houston, the average population density is 3160. If we gave one representative to each 10 square mile block, 2 votes for republicans would get a representative, while the same 100% turnout for democrats in the city would mean a democratic representative representing over 30,000 people.
Now, in actual fact the areas are far larger in the USA, never-the-less the difference in how many people are represented can be as severe.
Why does it matter? Why was the move Trump made foolish? Because animals like this have not fully recovered from near extinction in the past – this means that their population is still very parodic. So taking Montana as an example, Montana has a healthy wolf population, as does Idaho and Wyoming (all 3 have over 1000 wolves). However the Dakotas have no resident wolves at all. Now if Montana Idaho and Wyoming are allowed to greatly reduce or exterminate the wolves, they will not reach the Dakotas.
Before you think I am being hyperbolic, Idaho was listed as having 1270 wolves in 2021, and the states government suggested that the scientific number of wolves to be killed was 1000 or 80% of the population. In 2021 Montana listed 495 wolves killed in 2021, and 396 in 2022.
Many states in the USA have demonstrated an inability to follow the science when it comes to wolf numbers, as such it is clear that it should be returned to federal control, before Montana wipes out wolves within ints boundary.
