Gray Wolf Makes Remarkable Recovery

Tuesday July 11 3:06 PM ET

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government proposed Tuesday to reduce federal protection of endangered gray wolves, saying they had successfully recovered from near extinction but acknowledging more could die as a result of the change.

The Interior Department proposal would classify most of the wolves - all those except the Mexican gray wolf in the Southwest - as threatened rather than endangered. That means authorities would have greater leeway in developing management plans that take into account concerns from private landowners.

The small population of Mexican gray wolves recently introduced to parts of New Mexico and Arizona - only 22 wolves - would remain endangered because they continue to be under the threat of extinction, officials said.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the recovery of the gray wolf - also known as the timber wolf in some parts of the country - was ``an endangered species success story.'' But she said the increase in the number of wolves will allow her agency to ``structure wolf recovery to meet the needs of the species and those of the people.''

While wolves may be given somewhat lower levels of protection, the increased flexibility provided by reclassifying them as ``threatened'' may make it easier for wolf populations to expand into areas in which they currently are not found, federal wolf experts said. Those include vast areas of the West and even parts of New England, they said.

For example, the less restrictive designation might convince landowners in the Northeast - where currently there are no wolves known to exist, despite ideal habitat for the animal - to accept future wolf recovery plans from Maine to upstate New York, officials said.

But as threatened - a less protective designation under the federal Endangered Species Act - some wolves also may be captured or killed if they threaten livestock or fall under another less restrictive provision of a formal wolf management plan.

The gray wolf is currently classified as endangered throughout the country except in Alaska and in Minnesota - where it has a ``threatened'' classification.

But the recovery of the wolves has been impressive across the northern tier of the country from Michigan to Minnesota and in the northern Rocky Mountains where the animals were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995.

Virtually extinct in the lower 48 states in the 1950s, today there are 2,445 wolves in Minnesota and a total of nearly 500 in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone has resulted in more than 300 wolves in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

``We made the right choice to ... bring these animals back from the brink of extinction,'' said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, in announcing that the animals have rebounded enough to warrant reclassification.

The new proposal brought mixed response from conservation groups with some praising the move and others expressing concern that the lesser protection might endanger attempts to expand the wolf's range.

``It's a mixture of good news and bad,'' said Bob Ferris of Defenders of Wildlife. He said he wasn't opposed to the reclassification, but was concerned that the government ``is not considering any further recovery areas'' and that some wolves could lose federal protection entirely.

The National Wildlife Federation said while the proposal ``reflects the success of wolf recovery programs,'' it ``falls far short of a bolder vision for recovery'' of wolves in the West.

Under the proposal, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would establish four distinct population segments, based on the primary ranges in which the wolves are found or are expected to migrate. The wolves would be removed from all Endangered Species protection in all or part of 30 states where wolf introduction is unlikely.

Report: Some Wolves To Be Booted Off Endangered List
    July 3, 2000
The Associated Press
    NEW YORK   —   The gray wolf, once on the brink of extinction in the continental United States, is abundant enough in certain areas that federal officials may soon relax the animal's level of federal protection, The New York Times reported Monday.
    The wolf still would be considered endangered   —   and therefore have strict protections   —   in southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where efforts to increase the numbers of a rare subspecies have stumbled.
    The Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing to modify the wolf's Endangered Species Act status from endangered to threatened, except in the Southwest, the Times said.
    The move, which could come this month, would mean wolves that kill livestock or threaten human affairs could be shooed away or shot by government agents.
    When the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, the lower 48 states had about 400 gray wolves, primarily in Minnesota and Michigan. There are now more than 3,500 in eight states and thousands more in Alaska, Canada and Europe.
    Some conservation groups, however, say the plan would ease protection too soon   —   before the species has re-colonized large sections of its old range. Ranchers and others counter that the laws protecting the wolves unfairly limit the rights of property owners.
    Once the new classification is formally announced, it will be subject to four months of public comment and eight months of internal discussions and possible revisions before it becomes law.

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