Wolves may lose endangered species protection

Rocky Barker | The Idaho Statesman

BOISE, Idaho _ The Bush administration could remove Rocky Mountain Gray wolves from the endangered species list _ again _ within the next two months.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is starting over after a federal judge returned the wolves to federal protection, saying the agency's justification for allowing Western states to take over wolf management was flawed.

Fish and Wildlife will publish a rule Oct. 28 and seek public comment on the exact same proposal that it released in February and used to decide in late March to delist the wolf in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington and northern Utah.

Like the original proposal, the new rule offers an alternative of leaving Wyoming out of the delisting of the controversial predator. That state allowed anyone to shoot a wolf for any reason in more than half of the state.

Read the complete story at idahostatesman.com

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