U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Wants To Take Grey Wolf Off Endangered List

The federal government wants to take grey wolves off the endangered species list following population growth in the Western Great Lakes region.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the plan today. Service director Dan Ashe says there are at least 4,400 wolves near the Great Lakes, and another 1,700 in the Northern Rockies. Plus, he says, more wolves are coming down from Canada.

“We expect wolves from Canada to continue to interact with and supplement the populations that we have recovered in the Western Great Lakes and the northern Rocky Mountains.”

Ashe admits grey wolves have not come back to all of their traditional range. But he says many large cities are now in that territory, and that the wolf is no longer threatened with extinction.

Conservation groups have sued to try to reverse an earlier delisting in the Western Great Lakes. The Sierra Club says nationwide delisting before the wolf population is fully recovered would negate decades of hard work.

There will now be a three-month comment period for the proposed national delisting.