"Judge Orders Gray Wolves Returned To Endangered List"

"A federal judge on Friday struck down the federal government's 2012 decision to remove gray wolves in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan from the endangered species list.

The ruling immediately restores all protections to the wolves in Wisconsin, which recently ended its third hunting and trapping season of the animals.

The suit was brought by the Humane Society of the United States.

'It's a great victory for wolves and wolf conservation,' said Jonathan Lovvorn, the group's senior vice president and chief counsel. 'We felt all along that federal protection should never have been removed.'"

Paul A. Smith and Lee Bergquist report for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel December 19, 2014.