In 1930, a federal officer shot what was believed to be the last wolf in Yellowstone National Park. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act and an ambitious reintroduction program, some 1,500 wolves have returned to the northern Rockies, and the howling wolf is once again the icon of western wilderness.

But recently, Interior Secretary Salazar rubber-stamped a Bush-era plan to kick the wolves of the northern Rockies off the endangered species list and leave them vulnerable to mass killing. More than 600 wolves wolves could be caught in the crossfire of state-sponsored wolf hunts. NRDC is filing suit in federal court to block this disastrous policy. It’s a fight we’ve won before. In the summer of 2008, NRDC and 11 other conservation groups compelled the Bush administration to abandon its first attempt to strip wolves of their protection when we made the case that the wolves had not fully recovered. Over this past year, the wolf population of Yellowstone National Park declined 27 percent -- and more than 70% of wolf pups in the park died of disease. NRDC will be fighting in federal court to compel Secretary Salazar to withdraw this disastrous plan and submit it to the kind of rigorous scientific review that the Obama administration has championed on other issues.

A few Facts

• Wolves are the ancestors of every breed of domestic dog, from pugs to poodles.
• After being hunted to the brink of extinction, the gray wolf was declared an endangered species in 1973.
• Sixty-six gray wolves were successfully reintroduced to the northern Rockies in 1995, after an absence of more than 50 years.
• The wolves’ return is helping restore balance. Elk are on the move, which keeps them from stopping to eat young aspen trees and branches, allowing trees to grow again on riverbanks. This in turn has spurred the return of streamside birds and beavers.
• When their Endangered Species Act protections were removed in 2008, roughly 110 wolves were shot in as many days.

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