Sportsmen’s Alliance Sues Fish and Wildlife Service for Failure to Act on ESA Wolf Petitions

Group Asks the Court to Compel FWS Decision on
Wolf Delisting and Downlisting Requests

Today, Sept. 9, the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to compel the agency to issue findings on two petitions requesting gray wolf delisting and downlisting under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

“Today, we’re making good on our promise to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service for its failure to timely respond to our petitions in accordance with the ESA,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel at the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “Unsurprisingly, the agency has asked us on multiple occasions to refrain from bringing this suit. But we will never refrain from holding agencies accountable to their statutory mandates to scientifically manage wildlife.”

In June 2023, Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, along with The Michigan Bear Hunters Association, Upper Peninsula Bear Houndsmen Association and Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association, filed two petitions with FWS requesting the agency delist gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes and downlist West Coast wolves to threatened. The agency ignored these petitions for over a year, and on July 2, 2024, we notified FWS that we intended to sue the agency for its failure.

The first petition requests that FWS recognize and delist wolves in Western Great Lakes states — Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (including areas in adjoining states). These wolves have long surpassed their recovery goals. The second petition asks FWS to downlist West Coast wolves — wolves in Western Washington, Western Oregon and California from endangered to threatened. These petitions serve as a blueprint for successfully delisting the wolves in accordance with prior court decisions.

“The ESA is crystal clear in its petition process – FWS must issue a preliminary 90-day finding on our petitions and make a final decision within one year,” said Torin Miller, Associate Litigation Counsel at the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “FWS has done neither, and we’re happy to remind them that the ESA’s provisions are not optional.”

For more on the on the Sportsmen’s Alliance’s two decades of work to put the science into the scientific wildlife management of wolves, visit this page, which contains management plans for every state, population requirements for delisting and when they were met, as well as current minimum populations.

About the Sportsmen’s Alliance

Working in all 50 state legislatures, the Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing, trapping and recreational shooting – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public and youth education, legal defense in state and federal court and research to guide the decision-making process of all involved. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance as www.sportsmensalliance.org, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.