Oregon Public Broadcasting

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wednesday removed the gray wolf  from the Endangered Species List.

The delisting applies to wolves in Idaho and Montana, but not in Wyoming. Inland Northwest correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports the announcement is certain to kick off another round of legal battles.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf expert Ed Bangs says this is almost the same delisting rule that the Bush administration issued last year.

There are two differences. One is that it doesn’t include Wyoming, whose state wolf management plan is deemed to be inadequate. Wolves there will stay on the endangered list.

Bangs says the second difference is that new research shows wolves in the three states are not as isolated from each other as earlier thought.

Ed Bangs: “We’ve now proven that we have natural dispersal between all the recovery areas and that those dispersing wolves have successfully raised young in each recovery area. And so that totally resolves that issue.”

No, it doesn’t, says Suzanne Stone from Defenders of Wildlife. The group was one of about a dozen that sued last year and forced the agency to put the wolf back on the Endangered Species List.

Suzanne Stone: “Most people look at this wolf population, where we have about 1500 wolves in the region, and think that we’re doing well, when, unfortunately, the delisting rule allows all but about 300 of those wolves to be killed.”

Stone’s group wants the agency to rewrite the rule to provide greater protections for wolves.

Both Bangs and Stone expect the delisting to be challenged in court.

Conservation groups hope the new Obama adminstration will withdraw the rule until something more wolf-friendly can be written.