The gray wolf has rebounded to the extent that the species no longer needs federal protection in the eastern half of the United States, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said on Friday.
Conservationists called the proposal illogical because wolves have only recovered in three of the 21 states where the administration plans to remove the species from the endangered species list. Gray wolves are back in the Great Lakes states, but while they were once common in the Northeast, few wolves live in the region today.
The controversy is likely to spark additional litigation over the federal government's role in protecting one of the nation's most famous predators.
Within the dispute is a success story both sides agree upon - the recovery of the gray wolf in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The three Great Lakes states combined have some 3,200 gray wolves, and populations in each state exceed recovery goals set when the species was listed as endangered in 1972.
"The north woods of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are healthier ecosystems because of the presence of wolves," said Steve Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Speaking in Minneapolis, Norton called the recovery "one of the most notable success stories of the Endangered Species Act."
Gray wolves were hunted and killed with more passion and zeal than any other animal in U.S. history. (Photo by Tracy Brooks courtesy Fish and Wildlife Service)
If finalized, the federal proposal would turn management of existing wolf populations - and recovery efforts - over to states and tribes from the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas to the East Coastand from Missouri to New Jersey.
The two other populations of gray wolves in the lower 48 states - the western population located in the Rocky Mountain states of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana and the southwestern population of Mexican gray wolves - will continue to be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Conservationists praised the success of federal efforts to recover wolves in the Great Lakes states, but contend the proposal denies the potential for that same success to occur in the Northeast states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York, where suitable wolf habitat exists.
"Lumping the vacant wolf habitat in the Northeast with habitat full of wolves in the Great Lakes defies common sense," said Peggy Struhsacker of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), who coordinates the organization's Wolf Recovery Program in Vermont.
Conservationists say there have been several reports of wolves crossing the frozen St. Lawrence River from Canada into the Northeastern United States in recent years.
Barring federal protection or state protection plans, according to NWF, there is little chance these wolves will establish viable populations in the Northeast despite ample habitat and prey.
States outside of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin currently have no protection or recovery plans in place.
Occasional gray wolves have been spotted in the Dakotas, but there is no sign that a population has become established in the Dakotas, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. Individual wolves dispersing from packs in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin have turned up in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska, but there is no evidence of reproducing packs in these areas.
"Rather than walk away from pursuing wolf recovery in the Northeast, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should be working to establish agreements with Canada and the states where habitat exists," Struhsacker said. "Wolves in the Northeast deserve the same opportunity to recover as their Great Lakes brethren."
Gray wolves once roamed from coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico. (Photo by Gary Kramer courtesy Fish and Wildlife Service)
The proposal furthers the divide between the Bush administration and the conservation community over the future of wolf recovery efforts nationwide.
Critics contend the Bush policies will undermine what many view as one of the nation's greatest conservation success stories.
The gray wolf, also known as the eastern timber wolf, once roamed from coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico.
Outside of Alaska, only a few hundred remained when the Endangered Species Act became law in 1973 and the species was listed as endangered.
Conservation efforts have helped build numbers to some 4,000, but these populations are spread across less than five percent of the gray wolf's historic range. In addition to the wolves in the Great Lakes states, there are a total of some 760 gray wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, as well an estimated 40 wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.
In April 2003 the Bush administration divided the species into three Distinct Population Segments (DPS) within the lower 48 states - a move critics say violates the Endangered Species Act.
Based on the creation of these population groups, the administration downgraded the status of the gray wolf in much of the eastern and western United States from "endangered" to "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Wolves in the Southwestern DPS remained endangered.
The move outraged conservation groups. NWF and others have sued to block the April 2003 rule in federal courts in Oregon and Vermont.
"The administration's plan is illegal and contrary to what all the scientific experts recommend for wolf recovery," said John Kostyack, NWF senior counsel for wildlife conservation. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has an obligation under the Endangered Species Act to restore wolves in a significant portion of their historic range, and this includes the forests of the Northeast states."
But the New York Department of Environmental Conservation says wolf restoration does not warrant serious consideration at this time. "It is not clear that a wolf population could survive in New York given the abundance of highways and our large human population," the agency says. "Nor is it clear that having wolves in the woods of northern New York would be compatible with the interests of residents or the farmers that live on the periphery of that region."
Recovery efforts have helped make the gray wolf a symbol for successful partnerships between the government and conservationists. (Photo by George Gentry courtesy Fish and Wildlife Service)
The Bush administration is also moving forward to delist the species in the Western DPS. In March the administration accepted management plans from Idaho and Montana and granted them greater authority to manage gray wolf populations in their states.
The plan allows state officials in both states to kill wolves threatening elk and deer populations and gives ranchers and pet owners greater freedom to kill wolves that threaten their animals.
But the Fish and Wildlife Service rejected Wyoming's wolf management plan, a move that prompted the state to file suit in April in an attempt to overturn that rejection.
The federal agency objected to the state's desire to designate wolves in some areas as predators - a designation that allows the animals to be killed at any time and anywhere.
Officials also criticized the monitoring requirements and biological underpinnings of the plan.
Comments on the delisting proposal for the Eastern DPS will be accepted for 120 days after the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register and may submitted by email to" egwdelist@fs.fed.us
The proposal does not affect red wolves in the southeastern United States, which are also listed by the Endangered Species Act.
