02/02/07 Delisting the Gray Wolf

Delisting the Gray Wolf. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the western Great Lakes population of gray wolves from the federal list of threatened and endangered species and proposing to remove the northern Rocky Mountain population of gray wolves from the list. The Western Great Lakes late winter gray wolf population now numbers approximately four-thousand - exceeding the numerical criteria established in the species' recovery plan. FWS Director Dale Hall says the service will monitor - for the next five years - the Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources and their future wolf management actions. HALL: State management plans are in place to ensure long term viability of this population. The responsibility for wolf management now rests with the respective states and tribes. Consistent with the endangered species act, the service working with the states and tribes will be monitoring wolf populations for at least 5 years after delisting. The minimum recovery goal for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains was attained in 2002 and has been exceeded every year since. Hall explains what the northern Rocky Mountain Distinct Population Segment includes. HALL: We're proposing to de-list the Rocky Mountain population which includes Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon and a small part of north central Utah. We're making this proposal with the understanding that in order to make a final decision, all criteria for delisting must be met. While the Service has approved wolf management plans in Montana and Idaho - it has determined that Wyoming's state law and wolf management plan are not sufficient to conserve Wyoming's portion of a recovered northern Rocky Mountain wolf population. Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett says that if Wyoming's plan is not approved before the Service decides a final action on the proposal - then the ESA protection would still cover that portion of the wolves range excluding the national parks - which have adequate regulatory mechanisms to conserve wolves. SCARLETT: Should Wyoming not move forward with an approved management plan, the significant portion of the range of the wolf in northwestern Wyoming would remain under the protection of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Endangered Species Act, thereby meeting those population goals and therefore enabling Montana and Idaho to retain their goals as set forth in their approved management plan. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.