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Latest News
VICTORY FOR ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOLVES!
(July 2008) An injunction by a federal judge in Montana against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has restored Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Rocky Mountain states (Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming) and effectively put a halt to a planned public hunt, lax restrictions on destroying wolves that predate on livestock, and other actions that could have decimated the region's wolf populations. Since the protections were lifted, at least 100 wolves have been killed in the region. This decision is a victory for the 12 conservation groups who are working toward the permanent restoration of protection for wolves through an ongoing lawsuit. Read more about the injunction by clicking here. For a full text of the court's decision, click here.
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 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not appeal two U.S. District Court decisions earlier this year (see below) striking down the reclassification of gray wolf populations from endangered to threatened. 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 August 2006, the U.S. District Court in Brattleboro, Vermont ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the U.S. Endangered Species Act when it decided in 2003 to lump the Northeast together with the Great Lakes area into the “Eastern” Distinct Population Segment. The judge determined that the National Wildife Federation and its partners (Vermont Natural Resources Council, Environmental Advocates of New York, Maine Wolf Coalition, and Maine Audubon Society) were correct in arguing that the Fish and Wildlife Service had illegally ended federal wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast. To see the ruling, go to http://www.nwf.org/nwfwebadmin/binaryVault/GrayWolfOpinion.pdf
- In January, 2006, a ruling by the U.S. District Court in Oregon rejected the 2003 decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove protections for the gray wolf in some parts of the United States and to eliminate the Northeast as a potential recovery area. The decision said that the Fish and Wildlife Service had violated the Endangered Species Act--effectively restoring the wolf to its endangered status and reopening the door to possible wolf recovery in the Northeast.
To see the ruling, go to www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/esa-status/j-opinion-0205.pdf
For more on CREW activities, visit the events page and the websites of member organizations.
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