The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday asking that wolves in the Great Lakes and Rocky Mountains remain on the Endangered Species List until they expand into traditional habitats across the United States.
The group wants the federal government to establish a nationwide wolf recovery plan that would restore wolves to places like New England, the Great Plains, the Pacific Northwest and California.
If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agrees with the petition, or is compelled to accept it under court order, the agency would have to rework its entire wolf policy. That means the center’s effort could delay indefinitely federal plans to hand management of wolves back to the states in areas where they have already rebounded, including Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. It could also return wolves in Montana and Idaho, where hunting was allowed for the first time last season, to federal control.
Read more from the Associated Press and Minnesota Public Radio.
