U.S. to Move Grey Wolf off Endangered Species List

By Mike Stark
Billings Gazette February 21, 2008

The Billings Gazette reports on today's announcement that the U.S. government plans to remove federal protections for the gray wolf. This would mean open season on recently established wolf populations in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, where state plans call for the wolf populations to be dramatically cut back through hunting. Wolves once roamed widely throughout North America and were nearly eradicated through a federally sponsored killing program by the 1930s. They were reintroduced in the mid-1990s in Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho as part of the Endangered Species Act reintroduction program.

Calling it a "remarkable conservation success story," the federal government said this morning it plans on removing gray wolves in the Northern Rockies from the endangered species list, 13 years after the animals were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees wolf recovery, said there are more than 1,500 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, far exceeding initial goals to restore them to the region. "The wolf population in the Northern Rockies has far exceeded its recovery goal and continues to expand its size and range," Lynn Scarlett, deputy secretary of the Interior Department, said in a statement this morning. The minimum recovery goal for wolves in the region was set at a minimum of 30 breeding pairs and 300 wolves in the three states for at least three consecutive years. That goal was met in 2002 and the population has continued to expand. "These wolves have shown an impressive ability to breed and expand - they just needed an opportunity to establish themselves in the Rockies. The (Fish and Wildlife) Service and its partners provided that opportunity, and now it's time to integrate wolves into the states' overall wildlife management efforts," H. Dale Hall, the agency's director, said in a statement. The official delisting notice is expected to be published in the Federal Register in the next week or so. The rule takes effect 30 days after it's published. The move means that state wildlife agencies in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho will take over full responsibility for managing the wolves and ensuring there's a sustainable population in each state. All three states have said they plan to implement wolf hunts. The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission on Wednesday authorized a hunt to begin this fall. Several environmental groups have vowed to sue over the delisting decision.