Environmental organizations have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for rejecting a petition to reclassify gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains as endangered or threatened.
Gray wolves are currently listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 44 states. However, in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, as well as parts of Oregon, Washington, and Utah, states have jurisdiction over the management of these wolves.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society Legislative Fund, and Sierra Club have filed a lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Montana. The lawsuit lists the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Interior Director Deb Haaland as defendants.
In February, the USFWS denied the groups’ listing petition but opted to develop a national recovery plan for the species, leading to the filing of this lawsuit.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) stated that after conducting a thorough and peer-reviewed assessment based on the most reliable scientific information, they have determined that there is no need to list gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the Northern Rocky Mountains and the Western United States. It is important to note that this finding does not alter the legal status of gray wolves in any way.
According to the lawsuit, the decision made by the USFWS was deemed “unlawful and arbitrary.” The argument put forward is that the agency did not base its decision on the best available scientific evidence.
The lawsuit states that the Plaintiffs are asking the Court to declare the denial of the Petition by the Service as arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful under the ESA. They are requesting the Court to vacate the illegal decision and remand the matter back to the Service. The Plaintiffs are seeking direction for the Service to determine, based on the best available science, whether wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains should be protected as an endangered or threatened species, with a specific deadline.
Colorado, which saw the reintroduction of gray wolves in December after a voter-approved initiative, has received a special designation from USFWS. This designation allows the state to treat the population of wolves as experimental.