Maine Audubon joins wolf recovery lawsuit
FALMOUTH (AP) — Maine Audubon is joining a federal lawsuit trying to
force the government to not reduce its federal wolf recovery plans.
Maine Audubon’s board of trustees has voted to join a lawsuit filed in
October by the National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups.
That suit claims it was illegal for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to
declare last spring that wolves in the Northeast did not need protection
under that Endangered Species Act.
The same rule change altered the wolf’s status in most of the continental
United States to threatened rather than endangered.
There are no known wolf populations in the northeastern United States, but
the National Wildlife Federation says there is suitable wolf habitat in
Maine, New Hampshire and New York.