Three sportsmen’s groups on Wednesday filed a lickety-split challenge to a federal judge’s order that the Fish and Wildlife Service reconsider Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf.
The notice of appeal filed by the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, Safari Club International and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation means the Fish and Wildlife Service could choose to postpone the gray wolf status reassessment ordered by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on Tuesday.
By pushing the gray wolf case up to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the sportsmen’s groups could also set up a key ruling on some evergreen legal questions, such as how much deference is accorded judges in interpreting ambiguous environmental statutes.
W. Laird Hamberlin, CEO of Safari Club International, said: “SCI is frustrated that the court ignored the reality of successful wolf conservation in the Western U.S. and instead ruled in favor of the plaintiffs’ arguments that are clearly biased against state wildlife management and counter to the law and the science.”
