Wildlife conservation organizations have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for missing its deadline to decide whether gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The deadline was set following a May 2021 petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society Legislative Fund and the Sierra Club. The petition asked the Service to again protect gray wolves in the northern Rockies after Idaho and Montana enacted aggressive wolf-killing laws last year. It asked for emergency protection and immediate relisting of wolves under the Endangered Species Act, arguing that federal protection is necessary to prevent wolves from being virtually eradicated from the northern Rockies as a result of the new laws.
In September 2021 the Service issued an initial finding stating that high levels of human-caused mortality may be threatening wolves and that the federal protection requested by the May 2021 petition may be warranted. But the Service missed its deadline to make a final determination on whether to institute that protection. Under federal law the agency is required to make its final decision within one year of receiving the petition.
Wolves in Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and northern Utah lost federal protections through a congressional legislative rider in 2011. Following a court battle, wolves in Wyoming also lost federal protection in 2012. The environmental groups say since losing ESA protection, wolves in the northern Rockies have fallen victim to widespread persecution.
