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The Fish and Wildlife Service announced the removal today of endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains, declaring the species no longer faces the threat of extinction.

The ruling addresses a distinct segment of the gray wolf population in eastern Washington and Oregon, north-central Utah and all of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. That population "exceeded its biological recovery goals, and all threats in the foreseeable future have been sufficiently reduced or eliminated," the agency wrote.

The wolves' minimum recovery goal: achieving at least 30 breeding pairs and 300 individual wolves for three consecutive years. The goal was achieved in 2002 and the population has continued to grow, the service said.

"We wouldn't be here today if we didn't have every expectation that the wolf will continue to thrive," said Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett today during a teleconference with reporters.

But environmental groups have long disputed the potential delisting of the gray wolf, claiming the species has not fully recovered.

"The decision to remove protections for wolves is premature," the Sierra Club's Melanie Stein said in a statement. "We still have a long way to go before wolf populations are sustainable over the long term. This is like declaring victory at mile 18 in a marathon."

The Natural Resources Defense Council announced today it would immediately notify the government of its intent to file a lawsuit challenging the delisting decision. The group already filed a petition with FWS earlier this week calling on the agency to set what it calls legitimate targets for the recovery of wolves through the lower 48 states.

But FWS Director Dale Hall said the agency has done its job and now it is time for the states to take over.

"Often people want the federal government and the Endangered Species Act to do more than ESA wanted us to do," Hall said. "We're not responsible for managing healthy populations."

Control handed over to state management

The decision allows states to impose their own management plans for gray wolves beyond federal land.

Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have developed plans to manage wolves on state lands. Wyoming's rule would allow hunting of wolves in the state's northwestern corner and let landowners also apply for a "lethal take permit" if they experience chronic wolf predation of their livestock or domesticated animals.

The service said in its ruling that the Idaho and Montana plans, passed in 2002 and 2003 respectively, meet federal requirements for maintaining a sustainable population.

The service said today's ruling does not apply to the gray wolf population in Wyoming unless the state's 2007 wolf management law takes effect within 20 days of the Feb. 27 publication of today's decision in the Federal Register.

If the Wyoming measure is not finalized, the service will withdraw its decision and replace it with an alternative decision to remove protections for all but the gray wolf's range in northwestern Wyoming outside of federal lands.

Ed Bangs, head of FWS's wolf recovery project, said the holdup on the Wyoming law is only a procedural one and he expects the law to become finalized within the next couple of days.

"I'm absolutely confident they're going to do a great job of management," Bangs said.

Click here to view the decision.

Click here to view NRDC's petition.