FWS Reinstates Wildlife Import, Export Restrictions for Gray Wolf

The Fish and Wildlife Service is reinstating Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf (Canis lupus) in response to a court order that went into effect in February 2022. The agency said that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California vacated a 2020 FWS final rule delisting the gray wolf, and while several appeals are pending, the FWS must implement the district court’s order until those appeals are resolved.

As a result, the FWS is reinstating threatened status for the gray wolf in Minnesota, along with a 4(d) rule setting import and export restrictions. The FWS is also reinstating endangered status for the gray wolf in “all or portions of the remaining 44 U.S. States and Mexico where the species was listed prior to our November 2020 delisting rule.” The changes take effect as of Feb. 10, 2022, when the court order went into effect.

“Gray wolves in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon, and north-central Utah (collectively, the Northern Rocky Mountains) retain their delisted status and are not affected by this final rule,” the FWS said.