By Sara Gilane
A group of hunting organizations including the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, Safari Club International and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation filed to intervene in lawsuits submitted by anti-hunting organizations against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) for the agency’s denial of two requests to relist Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). “The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation sought intervention to ensure that sportsmen have a voice, including any settlement negotiations taking place as the litigation proceeds,” according to a statement from the foundation.
Intervention is a process used by courts to bring interested third parties into a case. The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation has a long history of intervening in many wolf-related ESA cases to ensure representation of hunters’ interests. Intervention in the current lawsuits is necessary because the interests of sportsmen cannot and will not be adequately defended by FWS, according to the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation.
Photo by Carter Niemeyer / USFWS.
The anti-hunting groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Humane Society of the United States, Western Watershed Projects and the Sierra Club — filed the lawsuits against the FWS in early April. The FWS countered with clear data that wolf populations in the northern Rocky Mountains remain robust, with local agencies effectively managing the species in the region.
“Once again, here are the anti-hunting groups denying science which shows time and again that the gray wolf continues to expand everywhere in the United States, including the northern Rockies,” said Todd Adkins, vice president of government affairs for the Sportsmen’s Alliance. “But groups like CBD and the Humane Society don’t care about science, don’t care about wolves, they only care about their extreme out-of-touch ideology and raising millions to file one frivolous lawsuit after another.”
A large gray wolf searches for deer in Ashland County, Wisconsin, in December 2023. (Deer & Deer Hunting photo)
The gray wolf is one of the most studied species in North America. The data from FWS and state wildlife agencies undeniably prove that gray wolves have recovered and are expanding their population each year, including in the northern Rockies. Despite clear evidence that the gray wolf is not endangered, animal-extremist groups continue to push to restore protections for gray wolves everywhere they exist.
