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Quick Update Litigation Begins Over the Delisting of Wolves

SCI is closely reviewing two separate cases filed in two different courts on June 2, 2009 to challenge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s rule to delist the wolves of the Northern Rocky Mountains, with the exception of the wolves of Wyoming.  In federal district court in Montana, Defenders of Wildlife and 12 other wolf and environmental groups filed a suit challenging the legality of the delisting of Idaho and Montana’s wolves.  In a separate suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Wyoming, the state of Wyoming challenged their state’s exclusion from the delisting.  Additional litigation to challenge the delisting of the Western Great Lakes wolf population is likely to be filed by yet another group of Plaintiffs next week.  SCI is reviewing each of these cases to determine whether and how it should participate.  In the past, SCI has intervened to defend efforts to delist wolves, which paves the way for better State management of wolves and possible future hunts, in both the Northern Rocky Mountains and Western Great Lakes areas.