Gray wolf timeline
An attempt to describe the history of the proposal to protect, and now, delist, gray wolves in the Northern Rockies.
1974: In the lower 48, gray wolves are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
February 2007: US Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to delist (and remove from ESA protection) the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population, which includes Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and parts of northeastern Washington. If delisted, management of wolf populations would fall to the individual states.
July 6, 2007: The agency opens its original public comment period on the proposal to delist gray wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains.
February 21, 2008: A final rule by US Fish and Wildlife Service delists the Northern Rocky Mountains gray wolf, citing that “the wolf population in the Northern Rockies has far exceeded its recovery goal.”
September 15 - December 31, 2008: The state of Montana proposes a “wolf season” (a fall hunting season, followed by a December trapping season). Wyoming and Idaho propose similar wolf seasons.
April 2008: The Natural Resource Defense Council and eleven other wolf advocacy groups challenge the federal government’s decision to delist the wolf by filing for an injunction against the delisting.
July 18, 2008: US District Judge Donald Malloy grants a preliminary injunction to place gray wolves under federal protection until the final ruling. His reasoning agrees with wolf biologists that genetic exchange among subpopulations of wolves is an unmet requirement and that the state management plans set to take over with delisting are inadequate. For example, people would be allowed to shoot wolves on sight in 88% of the state of Wyoming.
October 13, 2008: US Fish and Wildlife Service repeals the delisting because it is now obvious that they will lose in court. The litigation is rendered moot.
October 28, 2008: US Fish and Wildlife Service re-opens public comment, slated to last 30 days, until November 28. Defenders of Wildlife is successful in increasing the public comment period to 60 days.
November 28, 2008: The latest public comment period closes. A final rule on the delisting of Northern Rocky Mountain wolves is expected by mid-January of 2009.
January 14, 2009: The Bush administration proposes to strip Northern Rockies wolves of their Endangered Species Act protections.
March 6, 2009: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announces that the US Fish and Wildlife Service follow the lead of the Bush administration and remove wolves in the Northern Rockies and Greater Yellowstone region from endangered species protections. Management now moves to individual states. What it means
September 2009: Idaho starts its wolf hunting season in its central and northern mountains.
September 9, 2009: A federal judge rules that gray wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho may continue, denying a request by conservationists and animal welfare groups to stop the first legal hunts in the lower 48 states in decades. Conservationists may still challenge the decision, on the grounds that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by making its decision based on political boundaries.
