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APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS FEDERAL RULES

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal appeals court in Richmond has let stand a decision upholding federal regulations that prohibit the killing of red wolves, a rare species protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4^th Circuit on August 25 denied a request for the full court to reconsider a panel decision upholding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations.

"This decision means that the agency can continue to carry out its landmark program to bring back the red wolves in North Carolina," said Lois Schiffer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment at the Justice Department.

Two property owners and two counties in North Carolina had challenged the federal regulations, asserting that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not have authority under the U.S. Constitution to prohibit the killing of endangered wolves in North Carolina.

The 4^th Circuit panel on June 6 rejected this argument, finding that the Service was within its authority under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The Court found that the relationship between the killing of red wolves and interstate commerce is "quite direct," observing that without red wolves, there would be no red wolf-related tourism or scientific research.

The appeals court decision is significant because it reaffirms the authority of the federal government to take steps to protect endangered animals, even when those animals are scarce and only exist in one locality.

The red wolf was rapidly nearing extinction in 1975, when the Fish and Wildlife Service captured all the remaining wolves and undertook a wolf breeding and reintroduction program. In 1987, the Service began reintroducing the wolves into Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in northeast North Carolina and then into the nearby Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

Since the federal reintroduction program began, more than 100 red wolf pups have been born in the wild. There are now as many as 320 red wolves in captive breeding facilities, on island projects, and in the wild population in northeastern North Carolina. It is the first successful restoration of a species declared extinct in the wild to a portion of its former range.

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