The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this morning that it plans to remove the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf from Endangered Species Act protection, a move that has been expected but which already has a bunch of environmental groups lining up at the courthouse.

The Interior Department is going to find this move far more controversial than when it removed another Western icon -- the bald eagle -- from the ESA list last year.

In making the announcement, Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett noted that there there are currently more than 1,500 wolves and at least 100 breeding pairs in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, which of course is not a bad turnaround for a predator that had nearly vanished from the U.S. last century. Officials added the wolf to the endangered list in 1974.

But conservation groups say the decision ignores the best available science and will put the tenuous populations at risk when states take control of wolf management later this year. Anticipating today's decision, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a petition yesterday calling for FWS officials to prepare a comprehensive recovery plan for wolves throughout the United States.

A coalition of 10 other environmental groups have said they also plan to sue to stop the de-listing. Of greatest concern to the groups is that state management of the species will lead to legalized wolf hunting and trapping as soon as this year. The Interior Department has said that Idaho, Wyoming and Montana must maintain a combined population of 300 wolves and 30 breeding pairs. We're not sure that sounds like good news for the other 1,200 wolfs, especially given the contentious relationship with so Rocky Mountain ranchers.

Comments (6)

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grey wolf
written by czf, February 21, 2008

Besides that, the Gray Wolf is awesome. It is a fantastic, beautiful and bad-ass animal.
Being from MN, I've grown up loving wolves. It's sad to think of any part of the population as '[http://rememberthemidwest.blogspot.com/2008/01/non-essential-prey.html]non-essential.[http://rememberthemidwest.blogspot.com/2008/01/non-essential-prey.html]'

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written by MarkR, February 21, 2008

I agree the grey wolf is a magnificent creature. And it does not sound like a good plan in Wyoming. But on the other side proper management of any animal is key, which at times includes hunting to cull the population and keep the ecosystem in balance. Sounds like it

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written by czf, February 22, 2008

In MN, the issue surrounding the wolves is that they are harming the moose population which is having problems of its own. but the wolves also help keep the ridiculously high and soaring population of white tailed deer in the state under control. when the wolf were at their lowest, the deer were numbers were literally unbelievable.
so its a lose lose situation, regardless.

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written by Harmony, February 23, 2008

The MN moose population would likely handle pressure from wolves if they weren't under so much stress from human activities. And any conservation biologist can tell you that a population of only 30 breeding pairs is too low for maintaining genetic diversity. The generally accepted minimum is a population with at least 50 breeding pairs. Who are the scientists at DFWS trying to kid?

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