Feds back down on delisting wolves The federal government plans to withdraw a rule that removed wolves in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and parts of Utah, Oregon and Washington from the endangered species list. If U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula agrees, a lawsuit filed by environmentalists will end, and federal biologists will get a chance to rewrite the plan to meet objections the judge made. Molloy's preliminary injunction July 17 temporarily relisted wolves and put a halt to plans in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to open hunting seasons on the animals. Since that decision, the estimated 2,000 wolves in the Northern Rockies have been under federal management. Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's top wolf manager, acknowledged the Bush administration had failed to explain why it was confident it could delist wolves without endangering the species again. Before the agency can issue a new rule, it must address Molloy's concerns, Bangs said. "There's going to be a thorough, fine-toothed comb going through it to decide what we can do better," Bangs said. The Natural Resources Defense Council and 11 other wolf advocacy groups demonstrated they would likely win the case on the merits of their arguments, Molloy said in his July opinion....