Wolf protections eased

Efforts to recover the endangered gray wolf have been a howling success, so much so that on Tuesday federal regulators lowered the protections down a notch, an indication that wolves are making a comeback.

"Wolves are coming back, and their new status highlights our progress toward recovering them across their range," said Steve Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The FWS's wolf reclassification from "endangered" to "threatened" means that the states have some say in the management. So while the wolves would still have federal protections, the reclassification could allow ranchers to kill wolves caught attacking their livestock — something they can't do now.

"What it will do is provide some limited protections so the state and landowners will have the ability to control problem wolves," said Craig McLaughlin of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

DWR biologist have been working on a wolf management plan for the past year, and their efforts received added priority when a gray wolf was captured last fall near Morgan, the first official confirmation of a wolf in Utah in more than 50 years.

Tuesday's final plan to reclassify the wolf came after a three-year proposal by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"It was anticipated," McLaughlin said. "It's the first step to transfer complete authority from the federal government to the state. We welcome the change."

Conservationists, however, are wary of it.

"We expect FWS will now move quickly to remove (Endangered Species Act) protections for wolves across the country," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, the National Wildlife Federation's senior vice president for conservation programs. "The across-the-board delisting of wolves this plan envisions cannot be justified by sound science or by law."

Besides Utah, the reclassification will apply to Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado and parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

In the Rocky Mountains, there are an estimated 664 wolves in 44 packs in northwestern Montana, Idaho and in and around Yellowstone National Park. This is the third year the population has been at or above 30 breeding pairs, meeting the recovery goals in the West, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"Only a few decades ago, wolves were well on their way to extinction in the lower 48 states," Williams said. "Today, Americans can hear wolves howl in Yellowstone National Park or see their tracks in the snow in Michigan and Wisconsin."

Thanks go, in part, to the late former Rep. Wayne Owens, D-Utah, who believed the lack of wolves was a major missing piece in its ecosystem. He led the drive to reintroduce wolves into the Yellowstone area, which began in 1995. The wolves thrived and spread into other states.

Of course some ranchers hated him for it, worrying that their livestock would become wolf burgers. One upset member of Congress even introduced joke legislation to introduce sharks into the Great Salt Lake in retaliation for Owens pushing for reintroduction of wolves up north.

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Contributing: Lee Davidson

E-mail: donna@desnews.com