By the 1930s, gray wolves had been purposefully exterminated from the West. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act and an ambitious reintroduction program, however, some 1,700 wolves now roam the Northern Rockies, and the howling wolf is once again the icon of western wilderness.

Then, last year, Interior Secretary Salazar implemented a Bush-era plan to kick the wolves of Montana and Idaho off the endangered species list and leave them vulnerable to mass killing by the states. In response, NRDC, Earthjustice and 13 other conservation groups immediately went to court and sued the government to restore endangered species protection for all wolves across the Northern Rockies until their population can fully recover.

While that case proceeded, wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho were allowed to go forward in the fall of 2009, leading to the killing of hundreds of wolves in those states. The loss of so many wolves, in addition to other forms of wolf mortality, was a further setback to wolf recovery. In 2009, the wolf population in the Northern Rockies grew at its slowest pace since reintroduction in the mid-1990s.

But good news came in August 2010, when a federal judge ruled in our favor and restored endangered species protection for wolves in the Northern Rockies. The ruling stopped the wolf hunts that were already planned for the fall of 2010. Moving forward, NRDC will urge the Obama Administration to come up with a solid plan that ensures the sustainable recovery of wolves over the long term.