A federal appeals court panel has reversed a U.S. District Court’s dismissal of a lawsuit by environmental groups challenging a federal agency’s killing of wolves in Idaho, and they remanded the case for further proceedings. The panel analyzed the requirements of a provision in environmental law regarding who can sue to enforce federal law. The panel held that eight declarations from plaintiffs’ members describing how USDA Wildlife Services’ wolf-killing activities threatened their aesthetic and recreational interests in tracking and observing wolves in the wild fell under the scope of NEPA’s protections, and established injury-in-fact. Consequently, the case was sent back to the district court for reconsideration. The Western Center for Biological Diversity responded to the opinion saying “With the new decision, we can return to the heart of the matter: whether or not Wildlife Services adequately reviewed the ecological consequences of killing scores of wolves each year in Idaho.” The lawsuit called for new analysis that would consider the impacts of the federal killing program in the context of the state’s management of Idaho’s wolf population. Western Watersheds Project and Advocates for the West represented the environmental groups in the litigation.
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