yippee!
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy reinstated Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho!

ESA protections for wolves were eliminated in the northern Rocky Mountain States of Idaho and Montana, and parts of Utah, Washington and Oregon in May of 2009. In delisting wolves, the Fish and Wildlife Service authorized Idaho and Montana to hold wolf hunts last year, Montana’s ending with 73 wolves killed and Idaho with 185 killed. The hunts were controversial but the state-by-state approach to delisting wolves is what helped Judge Malloy rule in favor of the 14 advocacy organizations that filed suit to restore federal protections. The federal judge stated that the government made a decision based on politics in removing the protections from just Montana and Idaho and not Wyoming.

This decision comes less than two months after Judge Malloy heard arguments from both sides of this case. Looks like this year’s wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana will have to wait.

Read more about this breaking news from the The Associated Press.