Wolves won big in court on Thursday, as a judge reversed a Trump-era policy that left them vulnerable to hunters. (Watch an informative video on wolves via National Geographic above.)

Senior District Judge Jeffrey S. White, presiding in the Northern District of California, ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inappropriately removed the animals from the endangered species list. 

 

In the waning days of the Trump administration, the government agency concluded that conservation efforts aimed at protecting wolves were no longer necessary because their population had rebounded from previous lows.

Environmental groups sued to reverse that decision. In court, the Biden administration defended its predecessor’s policy.

“Wolves need federal protection, period,” said Kristen Boyles, an attorney at Earthjustice, a nonprofit legal group that spearheaded the court challenge. “The Fish and Wildlife Service should be ashamed of defending the gray wolf delisting.”

According to The New York Time‘s characterization of White’s court order, the Fish and Wildlife Service “did not adequately consider threats to wolves outside of the Great Lakes and Northern Rocky Mountains where they have rebounded most significantly.”

Thursday’s court ruling applies to 44 of the lower 48 states. The Times explains:

Wolves in Montana and Idaho will remain unprotected because they were delisted by Congress in 2011. Wolves in Wyoming were delisted by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2017. Wolves in New Mexico, which are considered a separate population, never lost protection.
After gray wolves were removed from the endangered species list, wolf hunting increased sharply in some states, including Wisconsin. In the spring of 2021, the state had to end its wolf hunting season early, after more than 200 wolves were killed in less than 60 hours, far exceeding the state’s quota of 119. Ojibwe tribes were furious, having decided not to fill their tribal quota because wolves have a sacred place in their culture.
Deb Haaland, the secretary of the interior, published an essay in USA Today this week expressing concern about threats to wolves. She said that she was alarmed by reports from Montana, where nearly 20 wolves have been killed this season after leaving the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. The Fish and Wildlife Service, she wrote, was evaluating whether it would be necessary to relist wolves in the Northern Rockies.

The Associated Press reports that hunting and gun groups were distressed by wolves being placed back on the endangered species list:

The American Farm Bureau Federation, National Rifle Association and other industry groups had urged [Judge White] not to restore federal protection, keeping the wolves under the control of state officials who allow wolf hunting.
Zippy Duvall, president of the Farm Bureau, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the ruling and that it ignored wolves’ recovery beyond government population goals.
“It’s really frustrating and outrageous that some judge thousands of miles away is suddenly telling us that our own scientific management of the species can’t be trusted,” said Ed McBroom, a Republican state senator from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. “They’re simply forcing citizens to take matters into their own hands.”

A spokesperson for the Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency was reviewing the decision.