Wolf Removed from Endangered List
Lawsuit Threatened by Environmentalists
April 1, 2008 (National)
The northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf was officially removed from the federal endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on Friday, March 28.
A coalition of 11 environmentalist groups, including the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Natural Resources Defense Council, have said they will file a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior to keep the wolves on the endangered list.
The group plans to file the suit on April 28, 60 days after the FWS announced their intent to delist. The coalition is taking a wait-and-see approach before filing for an injunction on the killing of wolves in the interim.
Idaho, Montana and Wyoming now take control of continued conservation management for the species. According to the FWS, for the past several years, the recovery goals for the wolf population in this area have been exceeded. Wildlife officials say the population is increasing by 24 percent annually. The three states are currently planning wolf hunts for the fall.
According to the FWS, there are currently more than 1,500 wolves and at least 100 breading pairs in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The three states and the FWS will work together to monitor the wolf population for the next five years as part of the Act declaring the delisting. If annual reports and FWS analysis show recovery levels dropping to threatened or endangered levels, the population could once again be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The FSW designated all of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon and a small corner of north-central Utah as the northern Rocky Mountain wolf District Population Segment (DPS) as part of the delisting.
The gray wolves of the Western Great Lakes DPS were delisted in 2007. The population of gray wolves in the southwestern United States remains federally listed as endangered.