Gray wolves inhabiting the wilds of Idaho and Montana will lose the federal protection they now enjoy under the Endangered Species Act for the second time in less than a year.
The announcement was made Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The delisting also covers the robust Great Lakes wolf population, estimated at about 4,000 strong.
"We can all be proud of our various roles in saving this icon of the American wilderness," said Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Interior Lynn Scarlett.
But unlike the delisting of wolves in the northern Rockies last February, a decision later rejected by a federal judge in Montana, the new delisting does not include Wyoming. Federal officials say the state's classification of wolves as "predators" across most of the state threatens wolf recovery.
That rule would allow wolves to be shot on sight at any time of the year in the designated predator zone. Wyoming officials drew fire last year when hunters began gunning down wolves throughout the predator zone within days of the delisting.
In Idaho, as many as 428 wolves could have been targeted by hunters last fall under a plan approved by the state's Fish and Game Commission. The plan will govern wolf hunting later this fall if the new delisting stands.
Soon after Wednesday's announcement, conservation groups—including Defenders of Wildlife, active in Wood River Valley wolf issues—said they will file suit against the renewed delisting drive.
They're also pinning their hopes on the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama, which they consider friendlier on endangered species issues. Whether the new administration will listen to conservationists and instruct the Fish and Wildlife Service to change course on the wolf delisting is hotly debated.
It's also possible that the Obama administration may seek a more middle-of-the-road approach to the wolf issue to avoid angering constituents in the West's conservative bastions just days after taking office. Some see Obama's picks for interior secretary, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and secretary of agriculture, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, as evidence that he will take a more measured approach on controversial Western issues.
According to Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Helena, the new administration could decide to extend the waiting period between the publishing of the delisting rule in the Federal Register—tentatively set for Jan. 27—and the date upon which the delisting becomes effective. The normal waiting period before a federal rule becomes law is 30 days.
"They certainly have every legal right to do that," he said.
The Obama administration will also have to decide if it wants to defend the delisting rule in court, Bangs said.
As in their first lawsuit, conservationists are already raising objections about Idaho's and Montana's wolf plans and whether they will maintain genetic connectivity between core populations in the face of high hunting quotas.
Last September, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated there were 1,455 wolves in the tri-state northern Rockies region. In Idaho, the mid-year estimate stood at 771 animals.
According to Defenders of Wildlife, the states' wolf plans could slash the northern Rockies population by as much as two-thirds, placing about 1,000 of the region's wolves in peril.
"We can move forward to delisting, and we should, but only under rational conditions," said Suzanne Stone, the organization's Northern Rockies representative. "Our regional residents need a science-based delisting plan that addresses the needs of both wolves and people."
But Bangs feels confident that the Fish and Wildlife Service has fully addressed the connectivity issue this time around. He said the agency went back and looked at radio collar data from roaming wolves as well as genetics testing, and the results indicate that dispersing animals are reaching every corner of the northern Rockies.
"We know wolves are moving back and forth," he said. "They've found mates and they've produced young."
Bangs said Idaho and Montana have promised to maintain wolves at a higher level than the minimum delisting standards require, pegged at 30 breeding pairs and 300 wolves in the northern Rockies. A move by the states to amend their plans to drop them to those minimum levels would trigger an automatic status review by the Fish and Wildlife Service, he said.
And if the evidence shows that wolves are not maintaining genetic diversity on their own, the states have promised to step in and capture and move wolves among populations, something that's been done 117 times since the reintroduction, Bangs said.
However, he doesn't think it will come to that.
"Natural dispersal will solve all these problems," he predicted.
Wolves living in the northern Rockies region—including here in the Wood River Valley where this picture of a wolf from the Phantom Hill pack was taken—will soon lose their status as a federally protected species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday. However, this time, the federal government is proposing to leave wolves in Wyoming listed under the Endangered Species Act Photo by
