Appeals Court in Missoula Hears Two Gray Wolf Cases Over Federal Protections
On the morning of October 13, 2026, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard back-to-back arguments in two gray wolf cases at the Russell E. Smith Federal Courthouse in Missoula, Montana, with the session beginning at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time. According to Capital Press, both appeals turn on whether federal protection for gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act should be broadened or eliminated, affecting wolves in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and elsewhere.
The federal government's position in both cases is the same: gray wolves in the lower 48 states are no longer endangered and should be managed by the states. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Polachek told the panel that the two district court rulings did not change the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's judgment on the wolves' status.
In the first case, a federal district judge in Montana had sided with wolf advocates and ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to consider expanding federal protection to wolves in the Northern Rockies, which includes eastern Oregon and eastern Washington. In the second case, a federal judge in California had ordered the service to restore federal protection to wolves in western Washington, western Oregon and California. The government appealed both rulings.
The American Farm Bureau, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Public Lands Council and the American Sheep Industry intervened in support of the government's positions. Their attorney, Lawson Fite, told the judges that the delisting rule at issue has now been defended by a third presidential administration.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, wolves in Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and northern Utah lost federal protection through a congressional rider in 2011. In 2020, the federal government removed protections from gray wolves across the rest of the lower 48 states, and in 2022 a federal judge in California reversed that rule and restored protections in most areas. In 2024 the Fish and Wildlife Service denied petitions to relist wolves in the Northern Rockies; conservation groups then won in federal court in Montana, and the government appealed. In early September 2026, the federal government directed the service to again consider delisting wolves nationally. A third case heard the same day concerned Mexican wolves. The court did not announce a timetable for its rulings in the two gray wolf cases.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 黄石国家公园的灰狼（资料图），公共领域，摄影：Yellowstone National Park／美国国家公园管理局（Wikimedia Commons）
