Boston College Law Review Volume 50 Article 6 Issue 4 Number 4 9-1-2009 Crying Wolf: The nlU awful Delisting of Northern Rocky Mountain Gray Wolves from Endangered Species Act Protections Jesse H. Alderman
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr Part of the Animal Law Commons, and the Environmental Law Commons Recommended Citation Jesse H. Alderman, Crying Wolf: The Unlawful Delisting of Northern Rocky Mountain Gray Wolves from Endangered Species Act Protections, 50 B.C.L. Rev. 1195 (2009), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr/vol50/iss4/6 This Notes is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CRYING WOLF: THE UNLAWFUL DELISTING OF NORTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAIN GRAY WOLVES FROM ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROTECTIONS Abstract: Although settlers hunted gray wolves to near extinction more than a century ago, the animal remains one of the most enduring symbols of the West. In 1994, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service authorized reintro- duction of gray wolves into Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming under recovery provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Fourteen years later, the Service delisted wolves in these states, contending that the reintroduced popula- tion met the numeric and distributional criteria established for recovery in 1994. Months after a district judge enjoined the Service's 2008 delisting rule, the Service again delisted gray wolves.