A recent ruling in a Montana federal court gave gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains another chance of protection under the Endangered Species Act. The ruling passed down from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law when it denied a petition for protection last year filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Humane World for Animals (formerly called the Humane Society of the United States), Humane World Action Fund (formerly called Humane Society Legislative Fund) and the Sierra Club.
Judge Molloy said the agency disregarded “the potential for wolf recovery across Colorado and the rest of the southern Rocky Mountains including most of Utah, northern New Mexico and northern Arizona,” according to a press release.
“With this court ruling comes the hope of true recovery for wolves across the West,” Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. “The judge rightly found that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s unambitious view of recovery violates the Endangered Species Act. Recovery requires that wolves return to places like the vast southern Rockies, where they once lived. They can thrive there if they have the lifesaving protections of the Endangered Species Act.”
Molloy ruled that the Endangered Species Act requires the agency to consider the southern Rocky Mountains region and other portions of the wolves’ historic range. He said the denial of the petition “unlawfully disregarded the potential importance of the wolf’s fledgling return to Colorado, through natural dispersal and historic reintroductions,” according to a press release.
“Gray wolf recovery is at a crossroads in the western United States, so they should not be relegated to the crosshairs of the killing campaigns that pushed them to the brink of extinction,” Sara Amundson, president of Humane World Action Fund, said. “The Fish and Wildlife Service’s attempts to deny these animals much-needed federal protection betrays not only the letter of the law, but countless Americans who want to see wolves protected.”
While the ruling vacates the agency’s denial of the petition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will have 60 days to appeal the decision or grant protections under the Endangered Species Act to gray wolves living in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, along with portions of Washington, Oregon and Utah.
“Wolves are deeply intelligent, social animals who play an irreplaceable role in the ecosystems they call home,” Kitty Block, president and CEO of Humane World for Animals, said. “Today’s ruling offers hope that we can restore protections to wolves in the northern Rockies, but only if the federal government fulfills its duty under the Endangered Species Act. These animals deserve protection, not abandonment, as they fight to return to the landscapes they once roamed freely.”
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