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UPDATE: 3/6/09, Wolves Lose - Interior Sec. Salazar Removes Protection
SOURCE: 3/14/09 — Gray Wolves To Be Removed From Endangered Species List

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he'd uphold the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to remove gray wolves from the federal endangered list in the Northern Rockies and the western Great Lakes. Wolves would remain a federally protected species in Wyoming... But management will be turned over to state agencies in Montana, Idaho and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah...Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The Obama administration had ordered a review of the decision made by the Bush administration shortly before departing. Salazar said he had concluded that dropping the wolf from the list was justified by its strong comeback in the two regions, which together have a population of nearly 5,600 wolves. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the Calif. Democrat who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, promised to investigate whether Salazar's decision is consistent with the Endangered Species act... Environmental groups immediately pledged a lawsuit over the estimated 1,600 wolves in the Northern Rockies...

Idaho and Montana already have plans for public hunts... Idaho Gov. C.L. Butch Otter repeated his desire to get the first available wolf hunting tag. "The fish and game population is really counting on a robust population of trophy animals to maintain that part of our economy," he said.

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UPDATE: Obama Gives Gray Wolves Their Lives Back
READ MORE HERE:
• 11/25/08: Save Gray Wolves From Bush Admin's Kill Plan
• NOVEMBER 2008 KC DIGEST: Animals Would Like President-Elect Barack Obama To Know…
• 9/29/08 UPDATES / AUG - OCT: Bush Admin VS. Gray Wolves: GOP Losing
• 2/29/08 UPDATES / APRIL - JUNE: Gray Wolf Hunts Planned After De-Listing

1/21/09 — Obama Freezes Pending Federal Rules, Wolves May Benefit
WASHINGTON, DC (ENS) - In one of his first presidential acts, President Barack Obama has ordered federal agencies to halt all pending regulations until his administration can review them… The freeze halts publication of federal regulations planned under the Bush administration but not yet published in the Federal Register. Wildlife conservationists say the freeze will possibly prevent the removal of gray wolves from the federal endangered species list in Montana, Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and also in portions of Washington, Oregon, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio…

Gray wolves are gone from over 95% of their historic range, including on millions of acres of national forests, national parks and Bureau of Land Management public lands whose ecological health has suffered in the absence of wolves… In the northern Rocky Mountains, wolf numbers are too low and populations too fragmented to ensure long-term survival…

The Fish and Wildlife Service and its predecessor agency were responsible for the extermination of wolves throughout much of the 20th century on behalf of the livestock industry… Under an exception to the Endangered Species Act, Fish and Wildlife Service actions have resulted in the federal killing of 931 wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and at least 1,951 wolves in the Great Lakes region from 1996 through 2008…

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• Fend off the Bush Administration's 11th Hour Attacks
• Bush Administration Takes Aim at Endangered Species
• Docket Title: Designating the Northern Rocky Mountain Population of Gray Wolf as a Distinct
Population Segment and Removing This Distinct Population Segment From the Federal List of
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife
• Search Federal Documents Accepting Comments Or Submissions