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Judge puts wolves back on Endangered Species List
A California judge has again placed wolves on the Endangered Species List.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White vacated and remanded a previous court decision from November 3rd, 2020 that removed the gray wolf from protections.
Judge White also agreed with the environmental groups in saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service improperly relied on inadequate and outdated state plans for wolf management when deciding to remove protections for wolves in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin saying the state plans are not sufficiently protective.
The court ruling was released Thursday afternoon, February 10th. So far, Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources tells Brownfield they are reviewing the new ruling and not commenting at this time. Wisconsin’s agriculture organizations have also not yet commented on the ruling as of Thursday afternoon.
White’s ruling says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cannot rely on the definition of “species” as an independent basis for delisting wolves. The court also says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to evaluate the full-listed gray wolf species and the status of west coast wolves. The court says the service’s interpretation of the wolf’s range was arbitrary and capricious.
