Several conservation groups were seeking to block Wyoming's challenge of a federal judge's decision to return wolves in the state to federal control, and today, they succeeded.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled from the bench that her original decision would stand. She ruled last week that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shouldn't have accepted assurances by the state in 2012 that it would maintain a minimum population of 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs.

Governor Mead and the state sought to reinforce the original agreement with even more stringent penalties for non-compliance, but the Judge said that essentially, Wyoming must go back to the drawing board on its wolf plan.

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