Authorities advise against travel as blizzard warnings continue.

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Wildlife advocates on Thursday asked a federal court to overturn a U.S. government decision that stripped Endangered Species Act protections for wolves across most of the nation.

Two coalitions of advocacy groups filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Northern California seeking to restore safeguards for a predator that is revered by wildlife watchers but feared by many livestock producers.

announced just days ahead of the Nov. 3 election 

that wolves were considered recovered. They had been wiped out out across most of the U.S. by the 1930s under government-sponsored poisoning and trapping campaigns.

Gray wolves lose federal protection; state will manage instead

A remnant population in the western Great Lakes region has since expanded to some 4,400 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

More than 2,000 occupy six states in the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest after wolves from Canada were reintroduced in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park starting in 1995. Protections for wolves in the Rockies were lifted over the last decade and hunting of them is allowed.

remain absent across most of their historical range 

and the groups that filed Thursday's lawsuits said continued protections are needed so wolf populations can continue to expand in Colorado, California and other states.

In response to the lawsuits, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Vanessa Kauffman said in a statement that the gray wolf “has exceeded all conservation goals for recovery" and is no longer threatened or endangered under federal law.

Some biologists who reviewed the administration’s plan to strip protections from wolves said it lacked scientific justification.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuits include the Sierra Club, WildEarth Guardians, Humane Society of the U.S. and numerous other environmental and advocacy groups.

A small population of Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest remain protected as an endangered species. Wolves in Alaska were never under federal protection.

What it means for Minnesota

Wolf again poised to go off federal protection

Environmental News

Politics and Government News

The Associated Press

Author

Wildlife advocates are asking a federal court to overturn a U.S. government decision that stripped Endangered Species Act protections for wolves across most of the nation.

Groups ask court to restore protections for U.S. gray wolves

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox