A U.S. appeals court has lifted protections that kept gray wolves an endangered species in Wyoming for years after federal officials removed packs in neighboring states from that list.
Friday's ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reverses a lower judge who sided with environmental groups and rejected Wyoming's wolf management plan.
It wasn't immediately clear how quickly the ruling might put into effect Wyoming state rules that would, among other things, establish wolf hunts.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined in 2011 that gray wolves were no longer a threatened species in Wyoming. State officials promised to maintain a population above the minimum 100 wolves, including 10 breeding pairs, outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation.
But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman ruled in 2014 that the state's promise was unenforceable and rejected its wolf management plan.
In its reversal, the appellate court ruled federal officials exercised proper judgment and adequately responded to concerns about Wyoming's management plan.
Gray wolves were once hunted to the brink of extinction in the lower 48 states, but they recovered under Endangered Species Act protections and reintroduction programs. They now number around 5,500, including about 400 in Wyoming, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
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