BOISE, Idaho — On Wednesday, Feb. 7, 10 conservation groups filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its determination that protection of Rocky Mountain gray wolves was “not warranted,” under the Endangered Species Act.
“The current killing regimes in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming put wolves at obvious risk of extinction in the foreseeable future, and this core population is key to wolf survival in the West,” wildlife biologist and Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project Erik Molvar said via press release. “Even if the states’ population estimates were defensible–and they aren’t, according to recent scientific analyses–the feds are underestimating the extinction agendas of anti-wolf state governments and the small and tentative state of recovering wolf populations elsewhere in the West.”
Conservation groups outlined reasons why they find the Service’s finding contrary to available science.
According to the Western Watersheds Project, the Federal decision confirms that a western U.S. distinct population segment, or “DPS,” is a valid entity for listing consideration, but then argues on the basis of a wolf population modeling exercise that there is no risk of extinction for wolves in the West either now or in the foreseeable future.
Conservation groups list two studies that argue the case for greater federal protection for the gray wolf.
In 2023, a study by wolf geneticist Dr. Bridgett vonHoldt found that wolf populations in the northern Rockies are losing genetic variability and below genetic minimum viable population levels at today’s populations.
A second 2023 study by Dr. Robert Crabtree found that the Montana state population model overestimated total wolf populations by as much as 50 percent. These researchers found that this flawed population model constitutes a “precariously misleading situation for decision-makers that threatens wolf populations.” In an earlier analysis, Dr. Scott Creel found that data input into both the Idaho and Montana population models was not reliable enough to provide population estimates to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
