Bureau of Land Management was sued by groups claiming the January hunt on public lands was ‘not in the public interest’

The US Bureau of Land Management has pulled the permit a hunting derby that targeted the Rocky Mountain gray wolf, among several other animals, after environmental groups sued the federal agency.

“BLM’s first-ever approval of a wolf-killing derby on public lands undermines wolf recovery in the Northern Rockies and was not in the public interest,” said Laird Lucas, director of litigation at Advocates for the West, one of the environmental groups suing.

Up to 500 hunters could have participated in the hunting derby on federal land, scheduled to take place in January on three million acres of federally owned wilderness. Hunters could have taken a nearly unlimited number of wolves, skunks, weasels, starlings, raccoons, coyotes and jackrabbits. The derby would have taken place over three days annually, for the next five years.

Gray wolves were previously listed as an endangered species. But the top-tier predators became a political hot potato in the west after some ranchers and hunters felt that environmental groups didn’t live up to their end of a bargain struck in the 1990s when the wolves were re-introduced. Since, the debate surrounding gray wolves has become increasingly polarized.

Environmental groups said in a press release that the federal agency received more than 100,000 comments critical of the derby. The BLM said more than 56,000 comments came in during just one phase of public comment, and that of the total, only 10 supported the hunt.

The derby will still take place on private land in Idaho, not on federal property. The scale of that event is unknown.

Those organizing the derby, Idaho for Wildlife, argued that the competition was meant to be a kind of winter outing for hunters as young as 10, and that those who were against the derby didn’t understand the western way of life. The president of Idaho for Wildlife also said calling the event a “killing derby,” ignored how difficult wolves are to hunt, and said that none would have likely been killed.

•The article was amended on 26 November to clarify that the derby will now take place on private land. The headline was further updated on 27 November to reflect that change.