A federal appeals court this week retained federal protection for gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes Region including Minnesota. The court ruled the government made crucial errors when it dropped them from the endangered species list five years ago. Minnesota Cattlemen’s Association President Krist Wollum says his group has been trying to delist the wolves from the ESA for some time.

He says prior to this court ruling the state’s had control of dealing with the gray wolves and that was working well.

Wollum says the rules of the Endangered Species Act need to be followed and he’s hoping they can get control of the gray wolves which are predators back in the hands of state control.

The same court that made this week’s ruling took wolves in Wyoming off the endangered list in May.