The Gray Wolf De listing Rider and State Management Under the Endangered Species Act

In April 2011, Congress passed a rider ordering the Fish and Wildlife Service to reissue a rule removing the gray wolf in Montana and Idaho, overturning an earlier court decision invalidating the rule. The rider was part of a wider effort by conservative lawmakers to reduce the protections that the Endangered Species Act affords to species whose continued survival is in doubt. While the biological justification for the delisting is debatable, the rider revealed a weakness of the Endangered Species Act: limited state participation in endangered species management reduces its political popularity, leaving it open to challenges and possibly harming conservation outcomes. While certain programs for state involvement have been implemented by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, section 6 of the Endangered Species Act provides for more robust state authority in endangered species management. After discussing the history of the gray wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains, this Note asserts that fuller utilization of section 6 to increase state involvement in endangered species management would increase political favorability of the Endangered Species Act and thereby improve conservation outcomes. The Note then considers how a fuller use of section 6 could have affected the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies.