BOISE — Investigations into livestock deaths in Idaho blamed on wolves don’t have to be made public, the U.S. government says.

The U.S. Department of Justice in documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court said the reports requested by an environmental group contain information that’s exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests.

The Western Watersheds Project environmental group said it wants the reports because it suspects the U.S. Department of Agriculture and ranchers are inflating the number of wolf kills of livestock so more wolves are ordered killed in the state.

The group — a public lands and wildlife advocacy group whose main goal is to restore watersheds primarily in western U.S. states — requested the documents in January from the Agriculture Department’s Wildlife Services and filed a lawsuit in July when it did not received them. Kristin Ruether, an attorney with Western Watersheds Project, said Friday that the group will press ahead with the lawsuit to get the information.

The group contends that some livestock deaths are being attributed to wolves even though the livestock was not eaten and there’s no clear evidence that wolves were involved.