Environmental conservationists groups plan to fight in court against the US Department of the Interior, after the latter decided that gray wolves should be removed from the endangered species list in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has approved management plans for all three states While Montana’s plan indicates a commitment to conservation, Wyoming’s plan classifies wolves as predators in most of the state, where they could be shot on sight without even a hunting license. Idaho plans on eliminating 85 percent of the wolves in the state through hunting or state eradication programs. The gray wolf or timber wolf, Canis lupus, is the largest wild member of the Canidae family, weighing in at around 70–150 pounds. Environmental groups said they are prepared to sue the government to put the animals back under protection.

“Everyone wants to see the wolf taken off of the Endangered Species list,” said Derek Goldman, Northern Rockies Field Representative with the Endangered Species Coalition. “But if that happens before we have balanced, pragmatic management plans in place, we are going to have to go through all of this again and again. We’ve driven the football 99 yards down the field – let’s not fumble in our haste to get into the end zone and claim victory,” said Goldman.

The gray wolves have been recently saved from extinction, after they were nearly wiped out in the wild. The gray wolf was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Reintroduction efforts placed 66 wolves in Yellowstone National Park and part of Idaho in 1995-96.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said it will immediately notify the government of its intent to file a lawsuit challenging the delisting decision. It said that it is premature to revoke endangered species protections because the wolves have not fully recovered.

“Americans will howl with rage when they learn that their government is jeopardizing this iconic animal,” said NRDC’s Louisa Willcox. “Why snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when we’ve made so much progress toward recovering wolves in the Greater Yellowstone region?”

For the Northern Rockies, independent scientists say the recovery goal should be at least 2,500 to 5,000 wolves in at least three interconnected populations in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. They say that viable populations should also be established in Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Washington.

Even Ed Bangs, the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf recovery project, admits he thinks that 300 wolves are not enough. In a Science Magazine article on February 15 Bangs said, “I personally think it [the recovery goal] is too low.”

The Center for Biological Diversity and allied conservation organizations sued the Fish and Wildlife Service over its April 1, 2003 rule downlisting wolves from endangered to threatened - a prelude to removing them entirely from the list of protected species. A federal court reversed that downlisting on January 31, 2005.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service is making the same legal mistake now as it did in 2003, and imperiling wolves’ survival,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “This time, just like last time, this illegal action will not stand in court.”