By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

SNELLING, Minn. — Last week the federal government published a proposed rule to remove the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Program list.

There are more than 500 gray wolves that live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.) and many more in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It’s believed that wolves drifted back into the U.P. and reestablished themselves after having been eradicated early in the 20th century.

“Like other iconic species such as the whooping crane, the brown pelican and the bald eagle, the recovery of the gray wolf is another success story of the Endangered Species Act,” said Ken Salazar, secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. “The gray wolf’s biological recovery reflects years of work by scientists, wildlife managers and our state, tribal and stakeholder partners to bring wolf populations back to healthy levels.”

Also last week, the federal government published a final rule removing gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains (NRM) region from the endangered species list. This action was taken after President Obama signed a bill this year reinstating the Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) action to take these wolves off the list. The FWS made that move in 2009, but a court action stalled its implementation.

Gray wolves in Montana and Idaho, as well as portions of eastern Oregon, eastern Washington and north-central Utah, are removed from the endangered and threatened species list. However, gray wolves in Wyoming will remain on the list, at least for now.

Regarding the western Great Lakes region, FWS officials write that the rule for the gray wolf is “as we envision it should be, unless public comments on the proposed rule provide information that persuades us that the listing should be presented differently.”

The proposed rule, if made final, would remove the currently designated critical habitat for the gray wolf in Minnesota and Michigan as well as the special regulation for the wolves in Minnesota. “We hope to publish the final rule by the end of the year,” said Georgia Parham, a spokeswoman for the FWS.

Although the history behind gray wolves’ status goes back decades, most recently the FWS published a final rule on April 2, 2009, removing western Great Lakes gray wolves from the endangered species list; however, on June 15, 2009, the FWS was sued by several parties claiming it had violated the law by not allowing for a proper public comment period.

In July 2009 the FWS and the plaintiffs reached a settlement and the rule was vacated. If the rule does become final and is not challenged this time, people who have to deal with gray wolves in Michigan will get some immediate relief. That’s because state lawmakers passed a bill in 2008 that gives farmers the right to kill wolves that are preying on their livestock. Act 290 of 2008 authorizes the “removal, capture or lethal control of a gray wolf that is preying upon livestock under certain circumstances.”

The law stipulates it takes effect immediately after the gray wolf is removed from the endangered species list. Right now a rancher isn’t allowed to shoot a wolf even if it is attacking their livestock.