Summary: The Ninth Circuit will hear three wolf-related cases on October 13. These decisions will determine the future of wolves under the ESA. Learn what is at stake and watch online.
On Tuesday, October 13, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear three wolf-related cases. The judges will convene at a special sitting in Missoula, Montana. Crucially, these appeals will determine the wolf’s future under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation (SAF) actively participates as a party to one case and an amicus in another.
What are the Active Cases?
1. Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project v. Burgum
The first case on the docket is Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project v. Burgum. It comes on appeal from an Arizona federal court. Significantly, this is the only case on the docket without SAF involvement. The lawsuit focuses on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Revised Management Plan for the Mexican Wolf.
According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Mexican wolf population has grown steadily. Numbers rose from at least 4 wolves in 1998 to 319 across Arizona and New Mexico in 2025. While that growth is significant, it does not justify delisting the wolves yet. Instead, the Revised Management Plan creates a recovery framework. This roadmap guides the population until it no longer requires ESA protections.
Ultimately, the federal court in Arizona upheld the plan. Consequently, the plaintiffs—led by the Center for Biological Diversity—appealed the decision.
2. Defenders of Wildlife v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The second case on the schedule is Defenders of Wildlife v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This lawsuit challenges a 2020 rule issued by the first Trump administration that removed ESA protections for gray wolves (a separate species from Mexican wolves) across the lower 48 states.
That delisting rule was invalidated by a federal court in Northern California in 2022. The decision was promptly appealed, and the appeal was delayed for several years.
In 2024, SAF filed a friend of the court brief in the case. Our brief argues that the courts are not applying the ESA as Congress intended by vacating delistings, while simultaneously calling the wolf an ESA “success story.”
3. Center for Biological Diversity v. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation
The third and last scheduled case is Center for Biological Diversity v. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. This case challenges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to deny several petitions seeking to either:
- Relist gray wolves: CBD wanted to restore protections in the Northern Rocky Mountain states— including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and portions of eastern Oregon and Washington— after Congress passed legislation to delist those wolves; or
- Create a Western States Population: Alternatively, they sought to combine the Northern Rocky Mountain population with unrecovered wolves in other western states and list the combined groups as threatened or endangered “Western States” population.
Eventually, a federal court in Montana ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service arbitrarily denied the petition as to the Western States population, and appeals promptly followed.
What is at stake in these appeals?
Fundamentally, these appeals will decide the future of wolf management across the lower-48 states. For Mexican wolves, the first appeal will determine how the population is managed while recovery efforts continue. Meanwhile for gray wolves, the other appeals will address whether federal protections should remain in place.
“Wolves have been at the center of ESA litigation for over 20 years,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel for Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “With a few exceptions in the Northern Rocky Mountains—which were the results of an Act of Congress—courts have consistently vacated every step the Fish and Wildlife Service has taken to remove ESA protection for wolves. We shall see if that trend continues with these appeals.”
The Executive Order and Potential Mootness
However, there is also a possibility that the court will never issue a decision on the gray wolf appeals. Last month, President Trump signed the Supporting America’s Ranchers Executive Order.
This order directs the Secretary of Interior to determine within 90 days if wolves “have met the recovery criteria for delisting or downlisting under the Endangered Species Act” and to begin the process of delisting or downlisting if they have.
Simultaneously, Congress is also considering legislation that would reinstate the lower-48 delisting rule at issue in the second appeal. Either action could moot the two gray wolf cases listed above.
“A case becomes moot when intervening actions make it impossible for the court to decide the case,” Jean continued. “An Act of Congress directing gray wolves to be delisted or a new rule delisting gray wolves would moot the case. If either of those things happened, it would supersede the underlying actions in the case, and the court could not grant the plaintiffs any relief. They would need to file new lawsuits. Again, we shall see.”
How to Watch the Hearing
The hearing will take place at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time. Fortunately, the Ninth Circuit streams its hearings on its YouTube page. In addition, you can stream the hearing through the court’s website. The website also archives oral arguments for those who cannot watch live.
Stand With Sportsmen’s Alliance
Issues like these are at the heart of the Sportsmen’s Alliance mission, and we will continue to monitor this important matter. Don’t stand on the sidelines—join us as a member or as a donor of the Sportsmen’s Legal Defense Fund in protecting tomorrow’s hunting, fishing, and trapping heritage today.
The Sportsmen’s Alliance guarantees hunting, fishing, and trapping for the American sportsman now and forever. We’re there when sportsmen need us most. As the only organization specifically created to protect the individual hunter, angler, and trapper – no matter the threat. We will never compromise when it comes to defending our way of life in the courts, in the legislatures, in the public square, and at the ballot box. We make this promise to the American sportsman: we will never give up and never give in while proudly securing our future against those seeking to destroy our values, beliefs, and traditions. Stay connected to the Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
