January 16, 2009

The federal government will remove gray wolves in the Rocky Mountain region from the Endangered Species Act, it announced Wednesday. (Illustration by Tim Mattson)

NEW YORK -- Gray wolves in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States will once again be lifted from the Endangered Species Act, the federal Department of Interior said Wednesday.

Wolves in Montana and Idaho, as well as parts of Oregon, Utah and Washington, will be affected by this ruling. Federal protection will remain for wolves in Wyoming.

This marks the third, and likely final, time the Bush administration has tried to de-list the wolf as an endangered species. Now, just days before he leaves the White House, President George W. Bush has succeeded in following through on his plan, which environmentalists have argued against for years.

The wolf population in the Rocky Mountain region, some environmental organizations say, are not fully sustained, and could be severely diminished by removing the species from federal protection.

The rule will be published Jan. 27 and take effect 30 days later. It is unclear whether the measure's life will span that long, however, as environmental groups are pushing for President-elect Barack Obama to reverse the rule shortly after his inauguration.

Obama has not spoken directly to the measure, but will "review all 11th-hour regulations and will address them once he is president," said Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro, according to The Hartford Courant.

Whether Obama takes fast action or not, environmentalists are likely to move quickly on filing a lawsuit to overturn the measure, said Jim Unsworth, deputy director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

The gray wolves' endangered status has sparked contentious debate in the Rocky Mountain region throughout the course of the Bush presidency.

They were last placed on the Endangered Species Act in March, then again removed in July. Since then, the wolves' population has spiked, bringing the animals away from rural areas and more toward residential ones, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

"You can't just keep stuffing wolves on top of each other," said Steve Nadeau, the large carnivore coordinator oft he Idaho Department of Fish and Game, remarking on how the wolves have nowhere else to go.

The increasing number of wolves in town caused a jump in pet and farm animal deaths across Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

Three hundred and twenty five farm animals in Idaho were killed in November, marking a sharp increase from the mere 47 recorded deaths in 2007, according to The Associated Press.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game noted the wolves were visiting more private properties than usual, according to Steve Nadeau, the department's large carnivore coordinator.

The wolves' shifting legal status has been particularly controversial in Wyoming, where state officials are pitted against federal ones over responsibility in handling the wolf population. Internal political tiffs have now led the Fish and Wildlife Service to shun Wyoming and focus only on Idaho and Montana, claims Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office.

"In the strongest possible terms, the state urges the service to end its practice of allowing politics and public relations concerns to drive the decision-making process for the new de-listing rule," wrote Ryan Lance, Freudenthal's deputy chief of staff.

Wyoming's plan to combat the wolf population would list the animals as predators, which could be shot on sight. It was sentiments like these that led environmental groups to take the issue to federal courts in the late spring, and what contributed to U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy's decision to reinstate the federal protection.

This trend might shift again, though, if federal wildlife has its way. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now lobbying the Bush administration to remove the wolves from the Endangered Species Act list, citing a need to curb the wolf population and balance the ecosystem.

More than 1,000 wolves in the region would be affected by the police shift.

Protection of the wolves was lifted in March by U.S. courts, but then was again restored in July, prompted by the U.S. courts' ruling that responded to environmental agencies' lawsuit. Environmental groups, like the Natural Resources Defense Council, thought the wolves weren't adequately protected by the states' laws.

They then criticized the recent push to re-list the wolves as not endangered creatures.

While it is not clear how low a species' numbers have to dip before it is placed on the ESA, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, issues like threats of destruction of a habitat, disease and predation can lend to a species' enlistment.

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The New York Times, The Hartford Courant and The Associated Press contributed to this article.