Re-Listing Gray Wolf as Endangered Is Unwarranted, Interior Says

The Department of the Interior said a district court imposed its own views of the Endangered Species Act when it ordered the re-listing of gray wolves.

The agency said its mandate is to prevent extinction, not “restore species to their pre-western settlement numbers,” in an opening brief filed in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Sept. 13.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service—housed in the Interior—carefully analyzed all wolf populations and didn’t need to consider threats to the species where they no longer exist, the brief said.

The Interior appealed a trio of federal district ...