After being removed from the Endangered Species List in March, wolves in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho are now back under full protection as of July 18—and they’re likely to stay there for the time being.
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After four months as a recovered species, wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are back under Endangered Species protection, shelving wolf hunts indefinitely. (photo by Mark Miller) |
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U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula granted a preliminary injunction after a dozen environmental groups represented by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental lawfirm, filed suit against delisting wolves. The injunction will grant wolves Endangered Species protection while Judge Molloy decides if they should stay on the list.
The decision comes after Wyoming had begun allowing the public to kill wolves on sight outside of the greater Yellowstone area, and just months before the states would have allowed limited hunting of wolves.
In his decision, Molloy agreed with environmental groups that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) provided no evidence of genetic exchange between wolf subpopulations in Yellowstone, and those in northwest Montana and central Idaho. In addition, he cited FWS’ unexplained “flip-flopped” decision on allowing Wyoming’s management plan after originally rejecting it. He noted that “more wolves will be killed under state management than when ESA protections were in place.” With fewer wolves, the opportunity for genetic exchange will thus decrease, wrote Molloy.
With Earthjustice’s lawsuit to relist wolves still pending, Molloy alluded to the potential outcome of their case. He wrote, “In my view, Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on a majority of the claims relied upon in their request for a preliminary injunction.”
Since they were introduced in 1995, the wolf population in the northern Rockies has grown to an estimated 1,545 with 107 breeding pairs. The USFWS defines a recovered wolf population in the northern Rocky Mountains as one containing at least 30 breeding pairs and 300 wolves, with an even distribution in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana for three consecutive years. Wolves officially met the recovery goal in 2002. The states presented wolf management plans to the FWS, and all were eventually approved by the end of 2007. Management is still with the states, yet they must follow federal regulations set forth prior to delisting.
With wolves back on the list, wildlife managers and individuals may still control problem wolves under a provision called the 10(j) rule. In places around Yellowstone and in central Idaho—where nonessential experimental populations exist—managers may kill wolves where they are creating “unacceptable impacts to wild ungulate populations,” and individuals may kill wolves in the act of attacking stock animals or dogs. However, that too is currently in litigation brought by Earthjustice.