WASHINGTON — Once nearly extinct, the gray wolf now roams the Great Lakes region in abundant enough numbers that it can be removed from the endangered species lists for the eastern half of the country, the Bush administration said Friday.
Wildlife groups decried the proposal, saying that the federal government was wrong to consider the wolf recovered throughout the eastern half of the country when the only vibrant populations are in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.
"This proposal puts the brakes on wolf recovery just as the species was starting to rebound," said Barry Braden, managing director of the Wolf Conservation Center in New York.
But Bush administration officials said the population of the eastern timber wolf, also known as the gray wolf, had exceeded the goals for recovery set when it was placed on the endangered list in 1972. That called for returning the numbers in Minnesota to earlier levels, and reaching at least 100 animals in other areas for five consecutive years.
At last count in 1998, there were at least 2,450 wolves in Minnesota -- exceeding the target -- and additional populations in Michigan and Wisconsin of 360 and 373 wolves respectively.
"Thirty years ago, the future of the gray wolf in the United States outside of Alaska was anything but certain," said Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton. "Today we celebrate not only the remarkable comeback of the gray wolf, but the partnerships, dedicated efforts and spirit of conservation that have made this success story possible."
Neither the Endangered Species Act nor the recovery plan for the wolf requires the restoration of a species across its historical range, administration officials said. And they said the size and distribution of the Midwestern populations of wolves ensured that the gray wolf would survive in the eastern United States.
The administration's proposal, which now begins a public-comment period, would not change the endangered status of the two other populations of gray wolves in the contiguous 48 states: the western population located in the Rocky Mountain states of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, and the southwestern population of Mexican gray wolves.
It would, however, mean that individual states would take over management of the affected wolf populations.
Minnesota's management plan, for example, divides the state into two zones. In the forested northeastern third of the state, protections would remain strict.
