BILLINGS, Mont. — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday that he is upholding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to remove gray wolves from the federal endangered list in the northern Rockies and the western Great Lakes, but not in Wyoming.
Wolves would remain a federally protected species in Wyoming because the state’s law and management plans were not strong enough, he said. But management of the predator will be turned over to state agencies in Montana and Idaho and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah, in addition to the Great Lakes states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The Obama administration had ordered a review of the decision made by the Bush administration shortly before it departed. Salazar said he had concluded that dropping the wolf from the list was justified by its strong comeback in the two regions, which together have a population of nearly 5,600 wolves.
Wolves elsewhere in the Lower 48 states remain on the endangered list.
Courts have overturned previous attempts to remove the wolf from the list, and future legal battles appear likely.
Environmental groups immediately pledged a lawsuit over the estimated 1,600 wolves in the northern Rockies. A federal judge in Missoula, Mont., last year sided with the groups when they filed a lawsuit saying the animal’s long-term survival remained at risk, particularly in Wyoming.
The government in January came back with its plan to leave out Wyoming. The state’s attorney general has said a challenge of the latest plan in court is likely.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has been unable to agree on a protection plan with Wyoming, which had sought a “predator zone” covering almost 90 percent of the state where wolves could be shot on sight.
Salazar said his department would work with Wyoming to “come up with a joint way forward.”
Idaho and Montana already have crafted plans for public hunts to keep wolf populations in check. There are no immediate plans for hunts in the western Great Lakes, which has nearly 4,000 wolves.
