Marquette, Mich. — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced it will not appeal U.S. District Court decisions from earlier this year nullifying the service’s reclassification of timber (gray) wolves from endangered to threatened for much of the United States.

In a news release dated Dec. 16, Craig Manson, assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior, said, “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not appeal U.S. District Court decisions earlier this year striking down the service’s reclassification of gray wolf populations from endangered to threatened for much of the species’ current range in the United States, although we continue to believe the reclassification was both biologically and legally sound.”

This is considered a tactical move in the service’s continuing attempts to give state governments authority to manage their own wolf populations in areas where they are considered healthy and thriving.

In January 2005, a federal District Court in Oregon withdrew the 2003 reclassification of gray wolves from endangered to threatened status throughout much of the United States. At that point state wildlife agencies lost the newly authorized use of lethal means to control wolf-related livestock depredation. During the 18-month period when the wolf was listed as threatened, authorities in Michigan killed 10 wolves causing livestock depredation.

The service’s new approach comes after a recent letter sent to the USFWS’ former director Steve Williams from the Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota departments of natural resources encouraging a timely delisting of the gray wolf in those states.

“The WDNR, MDNR, and MNDNR commend the efforts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in recovering wolves in the Great Lakes region. This effort is completed and needs to be immediately recognized so that support for wolf recovery does not further erode in this area. It is time to return full authority for wolf management to the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota,” the letter stated.

The USFWS is exploring options for managing wolf populations that will comply with the court’s rulings while recognizing that Yellowstone and Great Lakes wolf populations have reached recovery goals necessary for delisting. The federal Recovery Plan for the gray wolf, written in 1992, set goals of 1,251 to 1,400 wolves for Minnesota and at least 100 combined wolves in Wisconsin and Michigan for five or more years. According to Brian Roell, wolf coordinator for the Michigan DNR, federal requirements for the delisting of the gray wolf in Michigan have been met since 1994.

As part of its new strategy, the USFWS plans to issue separate proposed rules to delist new distinct population segments of gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes as early as possible in 2006.

The letter to Williams specifically requested the USFWS designate a Great Lakes Distinct Population Segment (DPS) that includes Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. Currently these three states are listed with other eastern states where wolf recovery efforts are incomplete. This grouping of states has led to lawsuits to keep the wolf from being delisted in the western Great Lakes because they are grouped with states lacking a stable population of wolves.

“We are certainly happy they are not proceeding with a lengthy appeal and are moving on and trying a different strategy,” Roell said.

According to Roell, with a new Great Lakes DPS including Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin - states with stable or growing wolf populations - the delisting process may occur in Michigan as early as 2006. Actual delisting would take several more months.

“For the people in Michigan and the wolves themselves, this will be a great thing,” Roell said. “Hopefully the authority to manage wolves will soon be given back to the state. This will immediately give us the option to deal with livestock depredation and nuisance wolves by lethal means.”

In the meantime, Michigan may resume killing depredating wolves under special permits - permits that were suspended under a different lawsuit last year.

Currently, the DNR is sending out 10,000 surveys to see how citizens want wolves managed in Michigan. Preliminary results show that there is not a lot of opposition to “taking” or “harvesting” as a part of management, Roell said.

“However, there are some differences of opinion on how this occurs,” Roell said. “Some people only want state authorities to handle this, some only want federal authorities, and some want hunting and trapping seasons open to the public.”

The DNR is establishing a roundtable made up of representatives of different conservation organizations including the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, National Wildlife Federation, The Hunting Dog Foundation, U. P. Whitetails, and the Sierra Club. This group will be charged with writing guidelines for the state to use when writing the new wolf management plan to replace the one written in 1997.

“This is definitely a positive step in the right direction,” Roell said. “We have been hoping to be considered our own DPS and to have our wolf federally delisted for quite some time.”

In the meantime, gray wolves will continue to be managed as they were prior to the 2003 reclassification. As a result of a 1978 reclassification, gray wolves in Minnesota are classified as threatened. In the remaining 47 continental states and Mexico they are listed as endangered, except where they are listed as part of an “experimental population” in the northern Rockies and parts of the southwest.

The gray wolf began naturally returning to the Upper Peninsula from Wisconsin and Canada in the late 1980s. The most current winter track survey, completed last winter, found that there was a minimum of 405 wolves in the Upper Peninsula. This was a 13-percent increase over the 360 animals counted in the winter of 2004.

Citizens with concerns about wolf management in Michigan should contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the Michigan DNR