Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia yesterday ordered the Bush administration to retain protection for gray wolves in the Great Lakes area under the Endangered Species Act.
"This is a tremendous victory for gray wolves, which have been hunted and persecuted to the brink of extinction in the lower 48 states and have only started to recover across their historic range," said Amy Atwood, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The victory is also another win against the efforts of the Bush administration to drastically limit the protections of the Endangered Species Act."
The Court’s order and accompanying opinion were issued in response to a lawsuit brought by conservationists challenging the Bush administration’s effort to unlawfully apply the Endangered Species Act to the status of gray wolves.
The Center filed a brief in the case that concerned a 2007 rule by the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove gray wolves in the Great Lakes region from the threatened species list. The ruling comes a few months after Judge Donald Molloy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana halted the Bush administration’s attempt to remove gray wolves in the northern Rockies from the endangered species list in response to a separate lawsuit in which the Center is a plaintiff.
Although the gray wolf once ranged throughout much of the lower 48 states and is entitled under the Endangered Species Act to recover throughout its historic range, in the Great Lakes and northern Rockies regions–where gray wolves have recovered to some degree–the Fish and Wildlife Service created and delisted a "distinct population segment" of gray wolves in each of those regions. The agency attempted to draw a circle around wolves in the Great Lakes and northern Rockies and remove their protection. In so doing, Fish and Wildlife attempted to abandon protection and recovery for wolves throughout the majority of their range in the lower 48 United States.
"The Bush administration’s repeated attempts to push the limits of the Endangered Species Act have been decidedly rejected by the Courts," Atwood said. "This is a great day for all endangered species."
The Bush administration has listed fewer species under the Endangered Species Act than any other administration since the law was enacted in 1973; to date, it has only listed 58 species, compared to 522 under Clinton and 231 under George H.W. Bush. George W. Bush’s administration has not listed a single species in nearly 18 months. In August 2007, the Center marked this record of inaction by presenting Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne the Rubber Dodo Award. The Center gives the award annually to a deserving person in public or private service who has done the most to drive endangered species extinct.
Loading...