Judge rules large areas of West wrongly excluded from lynx "critical habitat" designation
Endangered lynx soon may have more room to roam, thanks to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, who concluded that large swaths of Western habitat were wrongly excluded from protection.
In particular, the court ruled that tens of thousands of acres in southwest Montana, north and central Idaho and throughout Colorado should have been considered for protection.
"The Endangered Species Act requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to try and recover lynx populations, so they can eventually be removed from the endangered species list," said Michael Garrity. "The previous critical habitat designation fell far short."
Garrity is executive director at the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, which joined three other conservation groups in a lawsuit arguing for more lynx habitat protections.