Federal Appeals Court to Consider Future of Endangered Species Act Protections for Wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan

The Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments Tuesday on whether wolves living in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan should remain protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Wildlife advocacy groups, led by The Humane Society of the United States, are defending their 2014 legal victory that returned Endangered Species Act protections to wolves in the Great Lakes region after the court found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated and misinterpreted the Act. The appeal, brought by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the states of Wisconsin and Michigan, seeks to reverse a 2014 district court decision that reinstated wolf protections. The district court judge stated that the Service’s decision was “no more valid than the agency’s three prior attempts to remove federal protections for a population of gray wolves” and that sometimes a “court must lean forward from the bench to let an agency know, in no uncertain terms, that enough is enough.” The Center for Biological Diversity filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of wolf protections...press release