The hysteria that has volcanoed up from the Northern Rockies delisting of Wolves is providing USFW with impetus to go for a 4th try at delisting the Wolves living in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan............They are approaching this attempt with a "carrot" stating that these Great Lakes Wolves are primarily Gray wolves(c.lupus) and that they are differentiated from Eastern Wolves(c.lupus x lycaon) that historically roamed our Eastern woodlands from Algonquin Park in Canada on down through the USA Appalachians .............The Feds hold out the wistful "promise" that these Eastern wolves would still have Endangered Species Act protections and could be restored to their former East Coast haunts one day...................I say great to the lycaon restoration..............but realistically our top Wolf biologists feel that there is a canid soup mixture of Gray and Eastern Wolves in the Great Lakes region and that they are not pure Gray's....................If this is the case, then a faulty premise for delisting..................On the other hand, our three MIdwestern States have shown a much higher co-existance tolerance for the wolves of their region and perhaps the States can indeed provide a humane and positive management plan that all stakeholders could sign off.....and in the process create a shining template for delisting that our Western and Eastern States could emulate and adopt

Another wolf push is on

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has made formal its pledge to remove federal protections for wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan – this time claiming those wolves are a distinct species from their eastern cousins.
The agency said the delisting plan has been submitted to the Federal Register and is asking for public comments over the next two months. A public hearing is set for May 18 at the Northern Great Lakes Center near Ashland.It's the latest update in a decades-long saga over how wolves should be managed in the western Great Lakes region and who should do it.  Three previous efforts to delist wolves over the past decade have failed when challenged in court. But federal regulators have added a new twist by using genetic science to claim that western Great Lakes "gray" wolves are mostly gray wolves and distinct from "eastern" wolves that roam in eastern Canada and once roamed the eastern U.S. "That's what the latest taxonomy is saying; that the gray wolf is different enough genetically to be considered a separate species from the eastern wolf," Laura Ragan, Fish and Wildlife Service wolf biologist, said.
The gray wolf, Canis lupus, is the one currently listed on the endangered species list and the one proposed to be removed. At the same time, the federal government will take a look at the status of eastern wolves, Canis lycaon, and determine what – if anything – should be done to restore that species across eastern states where it no longer exists. That move could help thwart complaints from some wolf supporters that, while Great Lakes wolves have recovered from near-extinction, wolves still should be protected in eastern states so their populations could return.
Ragan said it's likely both species are roaming western Great Lakes states and are intermixing, "but you can't tell them apart in the field," Ragan told the News Tribune. "The general sense is that eastern wolves are slightly smaller, but not enough for even our people to tell them apart." Agency officials caution that their proposal first must pass scientific review, be biologically credible and be subject to public comment – and then stand up to likely challenges in federal court.
There are about 3,200 wolves in Minnesota and about 700 each in Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula – many more than federal officials expected when the animal first received federal protection in 1974 after they were shot, trapped, and poisoned to near extinction. Wolves in the region currently are off-limits to trapping, hunting or harassment, except in Minnesota, where federal trappers kill about 180 wolves each year near where livestock or pets have been attacked.
Federal officials say they can have the final rule in place to delist gray wolves by the end of 2011.
State natural-resource agencies, livestock farmers, hunting groups, and members of Congress have called for an end to federal protections so more wolves can be trapped and shot.
Pro-wolf groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, have called for the federal government to continue protections in the Great Lakes region until wolves have been restored across far more areas of their original range, including eastern states where they don't exist. Status supporters say the eagerness to kill wolves shows attitudes have not changed enough.