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Current Policy

In 1992 and 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed bringing back the Northeast wolf population, which it called critical to the “overall restoration of the species.” In these proposals, the Northeast was considered a “Distinct Population Segment” (DPS), a designation that helps guide recovery planning in different parts of the country.

In 2003, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a Wolf Reclassification Rule to “downlist” the gray wolf from “endangered” to “threatened” on the federal Endangered Species list. Doing so would have weakened protections and given state agencies flexibility in wolf management, including lethal control. The 2003 rule also redefined the “eastern” DPS as extending from Maine to the Dakotas, stating that recovery of wolves in the Great Lakes region (Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) was reason enough to halt recovery efforts in the other 18 states included in the DPS.

Nineteen organizations, including several CREW members, joined together in a lawsuit to challenge the Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal. They argued that the proposed rule violated key provisions in the federal Endangered Species Act—the need for a species to be recovered in a significant part of its historic range and the importance of addressing ongoing threats against a species (like habitat loss or hunting and trapping pressures) before protections are removed. They also emphasized that the new DPS definition wasn’t based on science or to promote wolf recovery, but to weaken species protection.

In January 2005, the U.S. District Court in Oregon agreed and threw out the Fish and Wildlife Service’s rule. This decision restored the wolf to its endangered status in much of the country and reopened the door to possible wolf recovery planning in the Northeast.

Also in 2003, the National Wildlife Federation and four partners brought a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service challenging its Wolf Reclassification Rule, specifically the new definition of the eastern DPS and the abandonment of wolf recovery in the Northeast. In August 2005, the U.S. District Court in Vermont ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, saying that the Fish and Wildlife Service had violated Endangered Species Act requirements to recover endangered species across a "significant portion" of their historic range and to protect "distinct population segments." The ruling also found that the Fish and Wildlife Service had violated its legal obligation to obtain public comment on removing Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Northeast.

In December 2005, the Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to appeal these cases. Although this decision doesn't guarantee that Northeast recovery efforts will be undertaken, it does reopen the door to such a possibility in the future. In addition, the Department of the Interior has stated its intent to issue proposals to remove from the Endangered Species List gray wolves in the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes regions.