In a victory for the gray wolves of the northern Rockies, a
federal judge in Montana on Friday July 18 reinstated federal
Endangered Species Act protections for wolves, thus preventing
Idaho, Montana and Wyoming from implementing fall wolf hunts.
The court ruled that conservation groups are likely to succeed
on the majority of their claims that removal of wolves from the
federal list of endangered species was unlawful. The decision
notes that, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had stated
that genetic exchange between wolf populations in Idaho, Montana
and Wyoming was necessary for the wolf's survival, Yellowstone's
wolves remain genetically isolated. Further, hunting and state
predator-control laws that took effect upon delisting would
likely "eliminate any chance for genetic exchange to occur." The
court also ruled that the conservation groups are likely to
succeed in their argument that Wyoming law (which allows
unregulated wolf killing in nearly 90 percent of the state and
fails to commit to maintai