Judge restores endangered-species status for most gray wolves, but not in wolf-hunting hotbed of northern Rockies

A gray wolf in Montana (Getty Images photo by Dennis Fast)

"A federal judge on Thursday restored protections for gray wolves in much of the country, reversing a decision by the Trump administration that stripped Endangered Species Act protections and exposed the animals to aggressive hunting in areas where they were nearly killed off years ago," Joshua Partlow reports for The Washington Post. "The decision by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Northern California immediately reimposes safeguards for wolf populations in the Lower 48 outside of northern Rocky Mountain states — one of the hotbeds of wolf hunting — and puts federal officials in charge of managing wolf populations in places such as the Great Lakes region, the Pacific coast, and other parts of their range.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took gray wolves off the endangered species list during the Trump administration and gave control back to the states. That was not scientifically sound and didn't adequately address threats to wolf populations outside their main populations in the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies, White said in his ruling.

"Environmental groups hailed the decision but warned that intense hunting pressure in states such as Montana, Idaho and Wyoming — which were not part of this court case — remains a serious threat to the country’s gray wolves," Partlow reports. "Hunters nearly wiped them out a century ago in much of the country, but federal protections have helped reestablish many packs in recent decades."

Pro-hunting groups criticized the decision. Kansas-based group Hunter Nation said in a statement that White was an "activist judge" and that hunting wolves helps "farmers, ranchers, and anyone who supports a balanced ecosystem with common-sense predator management."