ATLANTA, Mich. — After devoting four decades and tens of millions of dollars to saving the gray wolf, the federal government wants to get out of the wolf-protection business, leaving it to individual states — and the wolves themselves — to determine the predator’s future.
The Obama administration Wednesday declared more than 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have recovered from widespread extermination and will be removed from the endangered species list.
“Gray wolves are thriving in the Great Lakes region,” said Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Coupled with an earlier move that lifted protections in five Western states, the decision puts the gray wolf at a historical crossroads — one that could test both its reputation for resilience and the tolerance of ranchers and hunters who bemoan its attacks on livestock and big game.
Wolves have returned only to isolated pockets of the territory they once occupied, and increasing numbers are dying at the hands of hunters, wildlife agents and ranchers. Now, the legal shield making it a crime to gun them down is being lifted in the only two sections of the Lower 48 states where significant numbers exist.
State officials welcomed the federal announcement as long overdue and pledged to keep wolf numbers healthy while allowing people to kill those caught assaulting farm animals or pets. The states might allow hunting and trapping wolves, although no seasons have been set and the federal government will monitor the population for five years.
Some environmentalists supported the decision. Others whose lawsuits blocked previous efforts to drop Great Lakes wolves from the endangered list said they were disappointed but had not decided whether to return to court.
“We believe the wolf has not recovered,” said Howard Goldman, Minnesota state director for the Humane Society of the United States.
