The ever shifting status of gray wolf protection has taken another turn.

A federal district judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday, September 29, overturned a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) effort to remove the wolf from the Endangered Species List in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The de-listing by the FWS was designed to give more efficient management of wolf populations to the three states, which are under public pressure to reduce wolf damage. The federal agency and the states believe the wolf population has rebounded to the point that it is becoming a nuisance to farmers, hunters, and rural residents.

But state management now is on hold following a successful suit that challenged the right of the agency to remove only the regional population from the nation-wide endangered species list. In overturning the FWS de-listing, the judge asked the agency to convince him their action is justified and legal under the Endangered Species Act.

Four organizations filed the suit in federal court, the Humane Society of the United States, Help Our Wolves Live, the Animal Protection Institute, and Friends of Animals and Their Environment.

The ruling to put the gray wolf back on the endangered list split even the environmental community. The Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC) thought it went too far.

Said MUCC Deputy Executive Director Tony Hansen: "The wolf's listing under the Endangered Species Act has minimized Michigan's ability to adequately manage the growing wolf population's size and distribution, which has led to significant depredation. Hunters, farmers, and dog owners are concerned because they are witnessing this currently unmanageable wolf population's impact firsthand."

Michigan's complex new wolf management program had just got underway in July, after three years of work that included a dozen public meetings and surveys of some 11,000 people. And just a few days before the order by federal Judge Paul Friedman, the Michigan Senate voted to let farmers kill gray wolves attacking their livestock.

Brian Roell, wolf coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in Marquette, said he's disheartened.

"We were really disappointed," he said. "You know, you think you do your best, and then the wolf is back on the list."

The ruling, he noted, will erode public support for setting up a plan to manage wolves.

Indeed, poaching - illegal killings - accounted for 34% of wolf deaths between 1999 and 2006, the state has reported.

What the DNR plans to do next is reapply for a federal permit that lets the state officers destroy wolves when summoned by a livestock owner, which the department calls a cumbersome process. The department had such a permit in 2005, but an earlier legal action revoked it.

The wolves had been removed from the federal list in March 2007, but they still were on Michigan's threatened list. The state was in the process of removing the "threatened" designation when Judge Friedman issued his ruling last week.

Last winter's DNR survey recorded 509 wolves in the Upper Peninsula. Wolves have also been reported in the northern Lower Peninsula, but the DNR says no permanent population has been established there.