Oregon Public Broadcasting

Last month, a federal judge put gray wolves in Idaho and Montana back under the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

On Wednesday, Idaho's two U.S. senators introduced a bill that would bypass that ruling and hand wolf management back to the two states.

Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are one distinct population. But those wolves are under three different management plans and he says that's illegal.

But, on the Senate floor, Idaho Senator Jim Risch declared that Wyoming refuses to create a state wolf plan that satisfies the federal government. He says that means the other two states are held hostage to Wyoming's whims.

Risch says the bill that he and Senator Mike Crapo have introduced would return control of wolves back to Idaho and Montana.

Jim Risch: "The state of Idaho will do a substantially better job, a cheaper job and a much more efficient job of managing the wolves in the state of Idaho than the federal government could ever do."

Last fall, both Idaho and Montana held public wolf hunts. Both had planned hunts again this fall with even more aggressive targets. Molloy's ruling forced the states to cancel those.