"I'm satisfied, and most wolf biologists I know are satisfied, that wolf populations in both regions have been biologically recovered for the last five years," Mech said.

But environmental and animal rights groups, deriding the move as a last-minute effort by the Bush administration to strip protections, promised Wednesday to return to court with another round of lawsuits.

"These guys have been trying for eight years to explain how it could be possible for them to delist the wolves," said Jonathan Lovvorn, a vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. "It's time for them to throw in the towel."

About 1,500 wolves in the Northern Rockies were taken off the list in February 2008. But a federal judge nullified the move in July, saying state management plans could not guarantee their recovery was sustainable.

Idaho and Montana already have crafted plans for public hunts to keep wolf populations in check. There were no immediate plans for hunts in the western Great Lakes.

"We're the people that have to live with it," said Eric Svenson of Reed Point, Mont., where officials said wolves have killed two dozen sheep and goats on the Svenson Ranch.

"Maybe hunting will keep their population in check," Svenson said.

Last September, a federal judge sided with animal-rights groups that accused the government of misapplying the law in when it lifted protections for about 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2007.

Gray wolves previously were listed as endangered in the lower 48 states, except in Minnesota, where they were listed as threatened.