Protection of gray wolves from hunting ends: ; Officials say recovery has exceeded goals for repopulation of formerly

BILLINGS, Mont. - Wolves in parts of the Northern Rockies and theGreat Lakes region come off the endangered species list today,opening them to public hunts in some states for the first time indecades.

Federal officials say the population of gray wolves in thoseareas has recovered and is large enough to survive on its own. Theanimals were listed as endangered in 1974, after they had been wipedout across the lower 48 states by hunting and government-sponsoredpoisoning.

"We've exceeded our recovery goals for nine consecutive years,and we fully expect those trends will continue," said Seth Willey,regional recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servicein Denver.

With the delisting, state wildlife agencies will have fullcontrol over the animals. States such as Idaho and Montana plan toresume hunting the animals this fall, but no hunting has beenproposed in the Great Lakes region.

Ranchers and livestock groups, particularly in the Rockies, havepushed to strip the endangered status in hopes that hunting willkeep the population in check.

About 300 wolves in Wyoming will remain on the list because theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the state's plan for a"predator zone" where wolves could be shot on sight. Wyoming Gov.Dave Freudenthal and a coalition of livestock and hunting groupshave announced a lawsuit against the federal government over thedecision.

Freudenthal, a Democrat, claimed "political expediency" wasbehind the rejection of his state's wolf plan.

Wolves were taken off the endangered list in the Northern Rockies- including Wyoming - for about five months last year. Afterenvironmentalists sued, a federal judge in Montana restored theprotections and cited Wyoming's predator zone as a main reason. Inthe Great Lakes, the animal was off the list beginning in 2007 untila judge in Washington last September ordered them protected again.

Environmental and animal rights groups have also said theyplanned to sue over the delisting, claiming that there are still notenough wolves to guarantee their survival. The groups point toIdaho's plan to kill up to 100 wolves believed to have killed elk.

"We understand that hunting is part of wildlife policy in theWest," said Anne Carlson with the Western Wolf Coalition. "(But)wolves should be managed like native wildlife and not as pests to beexterminated."

The delisting review began under the administration of PresidentGeorge W. Bush and the proposal was upheld by President BarackObama's administration after an internal review. In a recent letterto several members of Congress, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wrotethat he was "confident that science justifies the delisting of thegray wolf."

Willey said his agency projected there would be between 973 and1302 wolves in the Northern Rockies under state management, a numberwell above the 300 wolves set as the original benchmark for theanimal's recovery.

More than 1,300 wolves roam the mountains of Montana and Idahoand an estimated 4,000 live in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.