More than a dozen conservation and wildlife protection groups sent notice to the federal government Wednesday of their intent to sue over last week’s decision not to give wolves in the West protections under the Endangered Species Act. (Tracy Brooks/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
More than a dozen conservation and wildlife protection groups sent notice to the federal government Wednesday of their intent to sue over last week’s decision not to give wolves in the West protections under the Endangered Species Act.
The move is not unexpected, as the groups had signaled they would do so last Friday when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its draft decision, saying that wolves in the Western U.S. are a distinct population segment but they are not at imminent risk of extinction and should not be given protections at this time. That finding was published in the Federal Register on Wednesday.
The decision stemmed from a study the USFWS completed after years of petitions and a lawsuit by the same groups, who believe that some of the states that have management control over wolves since their delisting in 2011 – including Montana, Idaho and Wyoming – are allowing people to kill or trap too many of the wolves.