Federal judge rules for Wyoming in wolf lawsuit

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider whether Wyoming's wolf management plan is adequate to meet recovery goals for the species.

U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne said the federal agency was wrong to insist that Wyoming agree to change its management plan to give wolves more protection before it would end federal oversight of the species.

Wyoming proposes to classify wolves as predators that could be shot on sight outside of Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area.

The federal government had rejected that management plan while accepting less harsh wolf management plans in Idaho and Montana. The Fish and Wildlife Service turned wolf management over to those states while leaving endangered species protections for wolves in Wyoming until a federal judge this summer ruled the species could not be divided along political lines.

Gray wolves are now considered an endangered species across the northern Rockies.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, in the final weeks of his second term, pressed the lawsuit against the federal agency.

"There's a point to be made here, which is that the Fish and Wildlife Service is certainly allowed to make a decision and change their mind, but when they do it, they have to do it on good science and good reasoning," Freudenthal said Thursday.

Jenny Harbine, an attorney with Earthjustice in Bozeman, Mont., noted the judge did not rule on the management plan itself, but said the federal agency did not provide a reasoned justification for rejecting it.

"He did not say Wyoming's management plan is sufficient, and any management scheme that leaves wolves in 90 percent of Wyoming subject to 'shoot on sight' hunting is on its face insufficient," she said.

Harbine represents a group of wildlife advocates who sued to reinstate federal protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho.

"Wolves remain subject to federal protections under the Endangered Species Act and the Wyoming court's decision doesn't change that," she said.

The federal government originally said it wanted to achieve a wolf population of 300 animals when it started its wolf reintroduction program in the Northern Rockies in the 1990s. Biologists say there are now at least 1,700 wolves in parts of six states.