HELENA, Mont. — A federal judge on Thursday reinstated protections for gray wolves in Montana and Idaho, saying the government made a political decision in removing the protections from just two of the states where Northern Rocky Mountain wolves roam.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula said in his ruling that the entire region’s wolf population must be either listed as an endangered species or removed from the list, but the protections for the same population can’t be different for each state.
Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service turned over wolf management to Montana and Idaho wildlife officials but left federal endangered-species protections in place for wolves in Wyoming. There, legislators have approved a plan classifying wolves in most areas of the state outside the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park as predators that can be shot on sight.
Molloy sided with wildlife advocates who sued the federal government, ruling the Endangered Species Act does not allow the Fish and Wildlife Service to list only part of a species as endangered and that the agency must protect the entire Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population.
The decision halts wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho slated this fall. Montana wildlife regulators last month set the wolf-hunt quota at 186, more than doubling last year’s number.
