A federal judge has restored endangered species protection for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, putting a halt to legal wolf killing in Wyoming and derailing plans by it and two other states to hold public wolf hunts in the fall.

What the ruling says

Here are some key points in U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy's Friday ruling that reinstates federal Endangered Species Act protection for wolves in the Northern Rockies:

Injunction

* The decision is not a final ruling on wolf relisting. It simply reinstates wolf protection pending full consideration of the conservation groups' lawsuit that argues wolf delisting violated the Endangered Species Act.

* In order to grant the preliminary injunction, the judge had to find that the plaintiffs had shown that delisting has and will continue to result in "irreparable injury" to the wolf population. The judge said such harm had been proven because the wolf control laws in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana were "more than likely to eliminate any chance for genetic exchange to occur" among wolf populations in the greater Yellowstone area, central Idaho and northwestern Montana.

* Granting the preliminary injunction request also required the judge to conclude that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on at least some of the lawsuit's claims. "In my view, Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the majority of the claims relied upon in their request for a preliminary injunction," he wrote.

Genetic isolation

* Molloy's primary conclusion is that while the original wolf reintroduction plan called for the animals to be delisted after the population reached 300 in the three states, it also called for "genetic exchange" among the greater Yellowstone, central Idaho and northwestern Montana subpopulations. The judge said there's "strong evidence" that such exchange has not occurred.

* He also ruled that, "(D)elisting will undeniably reduce the chances for future genetic exchange."

Wyoming's plan

The judge found that Wyoming's wolf management plan is inadequate because:

* It doesn't clearly commit the state to maintain at least 15 wolf packs in the state.

"What these state laws show is that Wyoming is not committed to maintaining 15 breeding pairs of wolves within the state; rather, Wyoming intends to rely on (Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks') ability to maintain eight breeding pairs of wolves to satisfy Wyoming's obligation to preserve 15 breeding pairs as its share of the required wolf population."

* It offers no protection to wolves in 90 percent of the state.

The judge notes that the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2003 rejected Wyoming's wolf plan because it classified wolves in most of the state as predatory animals with no protection.

"Now, in approving Wyoming's 2007 plan, the (Fish and Wildlife Service) has compromised its earlier thinking and accepted less than statewide trophy game designation for the wolf," he wrote. "… The (agency) has failed to provide any rationale for accepting something less now."

* The "trophy game" zone in the northwest part of the state isn't big enough to guarantee wolf population viability, and its borders can be altered by the state Game and Fish Commission.

Wyoming wolf control

* Because Wyoming law allows the killing of wolves simply "doing damage to private property" - not attacking or harassing people, pets and livestock - the judge found that "it is unclear whether a viable wolf population can be sustained under the law."

- Chad Baldwin, Star-Tribune editor

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula, Mont., granted a preliminary injunction late Friday restoring the protection for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent. That would force the government back to the beginning in its effort to pass management of the animals to the states.

An estimated 2,000 wolves now roam the Northern Rockies, according to the latest estimate by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They were removed from the endangered species list in March, following a decade-long restoration effort.

Environmentalists sued to overturn the decision, arguing wolf numbers would plummet if hunting were allowed. They sought the injunction in the hopes of stopping the hunts and allowing the wolf population to continue expanding.

"There were fall hunts scheduled that would call for perhaps as many as 500 wolves to be killed. We're delighted those wolves will be saved," said attorney Doug Honnold with Earthjustice, who had argued the case before Molloy on behalf of 12 environmental groups.

In his ruling, Molloy said the federal government had not met its standard for wolf recovery, including interbreeding of wolves among the three states to ensure healthy genetics.

"Genetic exchange has not taken place," Molloy wrote in the 40-page decision.

Molloy said hunting and state laws allowing the killing of wolves for livestock attacks would likely "eliminate any chance for genetic exchange to occur."

He particularly took aim at Wyoming's wolf management plan, which allows unregulated killing of wolves in most of the state and allows killing of wolves that are "doing damage to private property."

The federal biologist who led the wolf restoration program, Ed Bangs, defended the decision to delist wolves as "a very biologically sound package."

"The hunting of wolves clearly wouldn't endanger threatened wolf populations," Bangs said Friday. "We felt the science was rock solid and that the delisting was warranted."

Bangs said government attorneys were reviewing Molloy's court order and would decide next week whether to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Wyoming officials also expressed disappointment with the ruling.

"I'm not surprised, given the judge's previous comments," Gov. Dave Freudenthal said in a statement issued through his press secretary. "I'm disappointed, but I'm confident the attorney general will continue to litigate on the state's behalf."

"We feel like Wyoming's plan is adequate for maintaining a recovered population of wolves in the state," said Eric Keszler, spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "We haven't had time to review the entire decision yet, but we hope to do that over the weekend and have some more information available Monday."

More than 100 wolves have been killed since the states took over management of the animals in March, according to environmental groups that drew their tally from state wolf management reports.

However, even prior to the states gaining control, government wildlife agents had killed the predators at a steady pace. More than 700 had been killed in response to livestock conflicts through the end of 2007.

Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said the number of wolves killed under state management was minimal.

"If a species that's recovered to the extent that the wolves have cannot be delisted, it confirms to me that the Endangered Species Act is truly broken," Magagna said.

The National Wildlife Federation had stayed out of the environmentalists' lawsuit, saying it could distract from efforts to protect other, more imperiled species. But for the plaintiffs in the case, Friday's ruling marked a major victory.

"We're of course relieved the lawsuit is being heard, and that wolves will be guarded in the meantime," said Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies representative for the wolf advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife. "It was a life or death decision for hundreds of wolves here in the region, and now it means life, and we're very pleased with the decision."