The email below is from Rep. Peter DeFazio, a member of Congress who represents Oregon's 4th Congressional District. Congressman DeFazio started a petition on CREDO Mobilize, where activists can launch their own campaigns for progressive change. We strongly urge you to sign Rep. DeFazio's petition and help him build pressure on the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to maintain Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves.

Gray wolves are part of our national heritage, but their populations have been put at risk due to aggressive hunting and trapping policies around the country.

Yet a recent proposal put forth by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would take critical Endangered Species Act protections away from currently listed gray wolves, leaving the species at risk once again.

We have to speak out now to save gray wolves. That's why I started my own campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, which allows activists to start their own petitions. My petition, which is to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, says the following:

Removing Endangered Species Act protections now would threaten the ongoing recovery of gray wolves and potentially weaken the Endangered Species Act. In light of the rejection of the science behind this proposed rule and the need to protect still-recovering wolves around the United States, I urge that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service immediately withdraw this plan.

Tell Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe: Protect gray wolves.

A lone wolf from the Imnaha pack named OR-7 became the first wolf in Western Oregon since 1947 and later crossed into California. That trip into the Golden State made him the first wolf there in nearly a century. The proposal put forth by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would leave still-recovering wolves like OR-7 at risk and without vital protections.

Studies completed after the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park have found that wolves are highly beneficial to ecosystems, benefiting a host of species from fish to songbirds to pronghorn antelope. Wolves have also been a boon to the local economy as a major tourist draw.

The scientific rationale behind U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal has now been called into question by an independent peer-review panel tasked with assessing it. The panel found that the rule does not currently represent the best available science.

Because the process is now fatally flawed by the use of inaccurate science and because it is apparent that wolves have yet to recover in most of the United States, I believe the proposal to take Endangered Species Act protections away from gray wolves should be withdrawn.

Will you join me and add your name to my petition to Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe to urge him to maintain Endangered Species Act protections for Gray Wolves?

Thank you for your support.

Rep. Peter DeFazio