DENVER – The federal government asked an appeals court Wednesday to overturn an order that bars the release of endangered wolves in New Mexico without the state’s permission, a skirmish in a broader battle over states’ rights and the Endangered Species Act.
New Mexico and 18 other states argue that the law requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to cooperate with them on how endangered species are reintroduced within their borders. Federal attorneys counter that the law allows the agency to go around a state, if necessary, to save a species.
Many of the arguments attorneys made to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Wednesday focused on the legality of the court order restricting the release of more wolves, not the broader issue of the states’ role in restoring endangered species.
But in hundreds of pages of court filings, the states and the federal government staked out opposing positions on who has the final say.
The fight is unfolding amid uncertainty about the future of the Endangered Species Act. Congress and the White House will both be controlled by Republicans who generally see it as an impediment to jobs and economic development.
And even if the court sides with the Fish and Wildlife Service, it’s not clear whether president-elect Donald Trump’s administration will continue to fight after he takes office.
The dispute before the 10th Circuit is over a Fish and Wildlife Service program to restore the Mexican gray wolf to parts of its original range in New Mexico and Arizona.
New Mexico has multiple complaints about the way the program is managed, and in 2015 it refused to issue a permit to Fish and Wildlife to release more of the predators in the state. New Mexico also announced it might sue the agency.
Fish and Wildlife decided to release more wolves anyway, citing an urgent need to expand the wild population to prevent inbreeding. New Mexico officials went to court, and a federal judge in New Mexico issued a preliminary injunction last year blocking further releases while the dispute is resolved.
