Pulling Out the Stops for Northern Rockies Wolves

It has been an eventful year for wolf conservation in the Northern Rockies highlighted by our lawsuit in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge wolf delisting on Constitutional grounds. The court announced its decision earlier this month and, as most of you know, the court denied our legal challenge meaning that—for now—and for the foreseeable future wolves won’t be protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Instead two user groups—ranchers and hunters—that enjoy inordinate political power finally convinced Congress to legislatively delist Northern Rocky Mountain wolves from the Endangered Species Act in April 2011. Sponsored by Senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and Max Baucus (D-MT), and Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID-2nd), the delisting legislation passed as a rider on an unrelated budget bill.

The rider contravened a 2010 court order that relisted the Northern Rockies population as “threatened” under the Act. Our General Counsel, Jay Tutchton, argued that Congress’ action was unconstitutional because it violated the Separation of Powers doctrine. We’ll spare you the details, but it was a very good case. In fact, the district court essentially agreed with the argument last August, but determined it was constrained by the Ninth Circuit from finding in our favor.

So we appealed to the Ninth Circuit. Jay argued the case in November, and the appellate court finally announced its decision this month. Unfortunately, the justices disagreed with our arguments and wolves are now unprotected in the Northern Rockies.

WildEarth Guardians has advocated for wolves for decades. We’ve worked tirelessly to realize our vision of restoring this vitally important species throughout the West. This setback has only strengthened our commitment to wolf restoration.

Moving forward we will continue to fight for wolf protections wherever they exist.

This winter we submitted detailed comments to the Fish and Wildlife Service in preparation to challenge in federal court Wyoming’s awful wolf management plan that would permit wolves to be shot on sight throughout most of the state. We are also still litigating against the National Park Service for failing to consider restoring wolves to manage overpopulated elk in Rocky Mountain National Park. And every day we work to educate the public, decision makers, and the news media that wolves are not ravenous killers of livestock and elk, but a critical component of the western landscape that deserve our respect and support.

Thank you for your continued support of these efforts, and for joining us in our campaign to protect and restore wolves.
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