A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to revive a plan for restoring a wild red wolf population in part of eastern North Carolina.

U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle agreed with wildlife advocacy groups last week in his order to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). He directed the agency to develop a plan to rebuild the wild population of the endangered mammal by returning to a captive breeding and release program.

Established in 1987, the groundbreaking plan to restore a population of native southern red wolves in the wild covers part of five counties in eastern North Carolina’s sparsely populated Albemarle Peninsula. Centered in a large coastal federal wildlife refuge area there, the program had succeeded in re-establishing a small population of the red wolves. However, the program has required continued management, including releases from a captive breeding population. The USFWS has resisted the expense, and in 2015 stopped the releases. Last year, wildlife advocacy groups again sued USFWS, noting the wild red wolf population had declined to just seven wolves, and asserting the USFWS’ changed policies violate the Endangered Species Act.

The previously successful reintroduction of the red wolf into its designated recovery area also required managing the competing non-native coyote population in the area, as well as legal limits on when wolves that strayed beyond the recovery area could be killed. Both of those elements of the restoration program had been stopped as well, and are considered essential to restore it to successful status.

“The Red Wolf Coalition is grateful that the court saw the importance of releasing captive red wolves to the wild population,” said Kim Wheeler, executive director of Red Wolf Coalition, one of the groups which sued USFWS. “These additional red wolves will add genetic diversity and breeding opportunities to the wild population in northeastern North Carolina.”