Feds want states managing wolves
Despite having been rebuffed by federal courts three times, the U.S. government is trying again to remove gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the endangered species list, officials said Friday.
By April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will release a proposal for handing management of the region’s wolves to state wildlife agencies in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and hopes to make a final decision by the end of 2011, regional spokeswoman Georgia Parham said.
Biologists say the wolf made a strong comeback from near-extinction in the three states.
The government tried three times in the past seven years to remove federal protections and return management of the region’s wolves to the states — most recently in 2009. But federal courts overruled the decisions in response to lawsuits by environmentalists and animal rights groups.