Bid to change wolf's status nixed

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied a Wyoming petition seeking to remove the gray wolf population in the northern Rocky Mountains from the federal list of threatened and endangered species. The state promised a legal challenge.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jim Risch of Idaho, where there are more than 600 wolves and where a wolf management plan has already won federal approval, said the predators have become "a nuisance — and then some" and renewed his call for prompt delisting.

Wyoming officials had proposed a policy of allowing wolves to live unmolested in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The state also proposes to allow trophy hunting for the animals in a large area immediately outside the parks while classifying them as predators that could be shot on sight elsewhere.

In rejecting the state's petition, the Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday that it couldn't remove federal protections for wolves in Wyoming until the state sets firm limits on how many could be killed. The federal agency also said the state needs to commit to maintaining a set minimum population of the animals.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said the federal agency's decision will make it easier for his state to go to court and get a judge to decide whether the state's plan is scientifically adequate.

Just hours before Monday's announcement, Freudenthal and state Attorney General Pat Crank released a letter in which they warned the federal agency that Wyoming intended to sue to compel action on the wolf petition and another petition the state had filed.

Ed Bangs, coordinator of the Fish and Wildlife Service's gray wolf recovery effort in Helena, Mont., said Monday that his agency is satisfied with the number of wolves now roaming the hills in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

"We don't want to see more wolves in the wild," Bangs said. "We think the population is fully recovered."

But Bangs said Wyoming needs to change its state law to give the state Game and Fish Department authority to maintain at least 10 breeding pairs and 100 total wolves in the state in midwinter before the federal agency can agree to removing federal protections.

Bangs said the Fish and Wildlife Service wants to see regulated public hunting of wolves in the three states. However, he said that in order for that to happen, the agency has to be assured that if it removed the protections of the endangered species act, the wolves would be adequately protected.

"Our conclusion is that Wyoming law, and its plan, really don't provide enough assurance for us to move forward with delisting at this time," Bangs said.