After a peer-reviewed assessment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday announced two petitions to re-list gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the Northern Rocky Mountains and the Western United States were “not warranted.”

The legal status of gray wolves does not change as a result of this finding, the Service said in the public announcement.

The analysis indicates that wolves are not at risk of extinction in the Western United States now or in the foreseeable future, the release reported. Gray wolves are listed for protections under the ESA as endangered in 44 states, threatened in Minnesota, and under state jurisdiction in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and portions of eastern Oregon and Washington.

“This population size and widespread distribution contribute to the resiliency and redundancy of wolves in this region. The population maintains high genetic diversity and connectivity, further supporting their ability to adapt to future changes,” the Service reported.

Based on the latest data offered by the Service as of the end of 2022, there were approximately 2,797 wolves distributed across at least 286 packs in seven states in the Western United States.

However, Department of Interior Secretary Deb Holland in a February 2022 opinion editorial for USA Today warned of states working against gray wolf conservation efforts.

“We are alarmed by recent reports from Montana, where so far this season nearly 20 gray wolves that set foot outside of Yellowstone National Park have been killed. This happened because the state recently removed longstanding rules in areas adjacent to the park, which were effective in protecting Yellowstone wolves that do not recognize boundary lines on a map,” she opined.

She also warned at the time further protections could be reinstated if states failed to protect the species adequately.

“Because of the gray wolf’s recovery, individual states are responsible for its welfare and sustaining that recovery. Nevertheless, we will reinstate federal protections under the ESA for the northern Rocky Mountains’ gray wolf, if necessary,” she said.

Friday’s announcement does not make any changes to the legal status of gray wolves, resulting in a rash of disapproval from many conservation organizations.

The Center for Biological Diversity, which was part of the petition challenging the status of the species, accused the Service of ignoring cruel hunting practices.

“I’m incredibly disappointed that the Fish and Wildlife Service is turning a blind eye to the cruel, aggressive wolf-killing laws in Montana and Idaho,” said Kristine Akland, northern Rockies program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “By denying protections to these beautiful creatures the Service is letting northern Rockies states continue erasing decades of recovery efforts.”

Recent state actions

Idaho law allows the state to hire private contractors to kill wolves, lets hunters and trappers kill an unlimited number of wolves and permits year-round trapping on private land. It also allows hunters and trappers to kill wolves by chasing them down with hounds and all-terrain vehicles.

In Montana, wolf hunters and trappers can now use night-vision scopes and spotlights on private land, strangulation snares on public and private land, and bait to lure wolves. A single hunter can purchase up to 10 wolf-hunting licenses, and trappers have a bag limit of 10 wolves. Montana’s new laws also extended the wolf-trapping season by four weeks and established a bounty program to reimburse hunters and trappers for costs associated with killing wolves.

Across most of Wyoming gray wolves are designated as predatory animals and can be killed without a license in nearly any manner and at any time. Wyoming hunters have recently angered conservation organizations after legally killing numerous wolves within 10 miles of the border with Colorado, where wolves were returned to the state in historic releases this past December.

“Unlike the Service, we won’t stand idly by and watch as northern Rockies wolves are slaughtered year after year,” said Akland. “Wolves are an invaluable part of their ecosystems and deserve strong federal protections.”

In Colorado, killing a wolf is illegal and can result is as much as an $100,000 fine according to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department. State officials anticipate releasing 30 to 50 wolves within the next five years in hopes to fill in one of the final remaining habitat gaps in the western U.S. for the controversial species.

Several organizations are now considering a legal challenge to the Service’s denial of the listing petition. The Service has promised to facilitate a “more durable and holistic approach” to wolf recovery that will extend beyond the ESA.

National dialogue

In December the Service launched an effort to create and foster a national dialogue around how communities can live with gray wolves to include conflict prevention, long-term stability and community security. These discussions will include those who live with wolves and those who do not but want to know they have a place on the landscape, the Service announced. It will be led by an outside convener, Francine Madden, with Constructive Conflict LLC.

“Conversation is best led by an outside party and not by the Service,” they said during the official launch. “Understanding that a fair, inclusive and balanced public engagement requires a neutral and widely trusted convener to design and guide the process.”

The Service intends to participate as one among equals with citizens, tribes, states, environmental groups, livestock producers, hunters and other contributors in this national dialogue. This effort will help inform the Service’s policies and future rule-making about wolves.

States and tribes have been important partners in managing gray wolves and will remain integral to their long-term conservation and acceptance on the landscape. This is important, the Service said in Friday’s announcement, because the federal government’s legal authority alone cannot address the variety of approaches to wolves that generate conflict.

Debate over the management of wolves has included more than two decades of legislation, litigation and rule-making, the Service said Friday. Wolf recovery to date has been construed around specific legal questions or science-driven exercises about predicted wolf population status. Courts have invalidated five out of six rules finalized by the Service on gray wolf status, citing at least in part a failure to consider how delisting any particular population of gray wolves affects their status and recovery nationwide.

“The fact that Americans have to worry about ESA rulings impacting their lives and livelihoods time and time again is illustrative of a broken system that allows bureaucrats to make decisions without local community input, said House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.). “Despite today’s announcement, it remains clear that the gray wolf is a recovered species, and its management should be transferred over to the states. It’s time for the federal government to get out of the way and let states and local communities manage the habitats and wildlife they know best.” 

In 2017, wolves were considered sufficiently recovered to have been delisted from the Endangered Species Act in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.