Environmental groups sued the State of Montana, alleging that the state's recreational wolf and coyote trapping and snaring regulations violated Section 9 of the Endangered Species Act by causing the unlawful take of grizzly bears, a threatened species. The plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction to halt trapping in areas where grizzlies might be active. The district court granted the injunction, limiting wolf trapping and snaring in a vast area of Montana to the period between January 1 and February 15, 2024, arguing this was the only time grizzlies were reasonably certain to be in dens. The state appealed, arguing the injunction was based on improper evidence, applied the wrong legal standard, and was geographically and functionally overbroad.
The Ninth Circuit applied the 'serious questions' test, a sliding scale variant of the standard for preliminary injunctions, which is appropriate in Endangered Species Act cases. Under this standard, the balance of hardships and public interest factors tip sharply in favor of the protected species, meaning plaintiffs need only show serious questions going to the merits and a likelihood of irreparable harm. The court found that the record reflected a genuine scientific and factual debate over whether the 2023 trapping regulations would cause unlawful grizzly take, satisfying the serious questions prong. Regarding irreparable harm, the court deferred to the district court's finding that there was a reasonably certain threat of harm, noting that grizzlies are attracted to baited wolf traps and that historical data suggests underreporting of incidental takes. However, the court held that the injunction's scope was flawed. The temporal scope was affirmed as necessary to protect bears in dens. But the geographic scope was deemed overbroad because it covered areas outside the occupied grizzly range based on speculative evidence, such as a bulletin stating bears 'potentially' could be found anywhere west of Billings. Additionally, the injunction was overbroad because it barred the state from conducting necessary scientific research trapping, a purpose not challenged by the plaintiffs.
The preliminary injunction remains in effect regarding the seasonal ban on wolf trapping from January 1 to February 15, 2024, to prevent immediate harm to grizzly bears. However, the state is no longer prohibited from trapping wolves for research purposes. The district court is remanded to expeditiously reconsider the geographic scope of the injunction to ensure it is narrowly tailored to the actual occupied grizzly bear range, rather than the broad 'west of Billings' area previously ordered. The current geographic scope remains in place only until the district court issues a new, narrower order.
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