Judge restores gray wolf protections after being eliminated in 2020

A federal court has restored the Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf, which means no more recreational hunting of these animals in Washington or Oregon.

The ruling orders the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to resume recovery efforts for the species. It also redesignates the gray wolf as a species threatened with extinction in the lower 48 states — with the exception of the Northern Rockies population, where wolf protections were removed in 2011.

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Without the protections that have now been restored, wildlife advocates argue that hunting would reverse a population increase that took decades to achieve. Gray wolves were removed from the endangered list more than a year ago during the Trump administration’s final days.

The most recent data shows an estimated 132 wolves in Washington, 173 in Oregon, and fewer than 20 in California.

“The science is clear that gray wolves have not yet recovered in the western U.S. By design, the Endangered Species Act does not provide the federal government the discretion to forsake western wolf recovery in some regions due to progress in other parts of the country,” said Kelly Nokes, Western Environmental Law Center attorney, in a written statement. “Today’s decision will bolster recovery of western wolves – a keystone species wherever they exist – and improve ecosystem health more broadly.”

The new court ruling does not override federal law, which still allows private citizens to hunt the wolves in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.