On February 2, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced that they had completed their status review on gray wolves and determined a petition to re-list wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains and western U.S. was not warranted. The Service conducted a comprehensive analysis using robust modeling that incorporated the best available data from federal, state and Tribal sources, academic institutions, and the public. The model assessed various threats, including human-caused mortality, existing regulatory mechanisms, and disease. The analysis indicates that wolves are not at risk of extinction in the Western United States now or in the foreseeable future. As a result, the status of wolves will remain in effect, with gray wolves Gray wolves currently listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as endangered in 44 states, threatened in Minnesota, and under state jurisdiction in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, portions of eastern Oregon and Washington, and north-central Utah.

At the same time, the FWS will begin to develop, for the first time ever, a national recovery plan under the ESA for gray wolves in the lower 48 states by December 12, 2025. Recovery plans provide a vision for species recovery that is connected to site-specific actions for reducing threats and conserving listed species and their ecosystems.

According to the statement: “Facilitating a more durable and holistic approach to wolf recovery must go beyond the ESA. The Service also recently announced a new effort to create and foster a national dialogue around how communities can live with gray wolves to include conflict prevention, long-term stability and community security. These discussions, led by a third-party convenor, will help inform the Service’s policies and future rulemaking about wolves, and include those who live with wolves and those who do not but want to know they have a place on the landscape.”