Feds release Wyoming wolf plan

he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday released a plan for removing wolves from endangered species status in Wyoming that would codify a compromise between protections in the Yellowstone region and allowing wolves to be shot on sight elsewhere in the state. The draft plan posted online and set for publication in the Federal Register on Wednesday opens the way for Wyoming's wolves to be removed from the endangered list as soon as next summer, said Michael Thabault, assistant regional director for ecological services for the Fish and Wildlife Service Mountain Prairie Region. The proposal follows a delisting framework that Fish and Wildlife and Wyoming officials agreed to last summer after months of negotiations. "We've obviously put a little bit more meat on the bone from the principle of the agreement," Thabault said. "But substantively it's the same." New details spell out plans for genetic testing of wolves and how the state would permit the killing of wolves that have killed livestock, he said...more