Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced plans to remove gray wolves in the northern Rockies from the endangered species list.
The agency’s proposal, however, is contingent on whether the state of Wyoming develops an acceptable wolf management plant, said Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Hall said Wyoming’s current plan does not contain enough assurances that wolf populations can be sustained to meet the agency’s recovery goals.
Federal officials have already turned over most of the day-to-day management of wolves to Montana and Idaho.
Wolves were almost wiped in the United States by early settlement, but have rebounded in recent years partly because of successful reintroduction efforts.
The agency’s proposal comes a decade after biologists released more than 60 wolves from Canada into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, a move hailed by most environmental groups as a conservation success story.
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or at kmcguire@denverpost.com.
