The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will close a public-comment period today on the proposed removal of the Rocky Mountain gray wolf from endangered species protection.

The federal agency reopened the comment period earlier this summer to include Wyoming in the delisting process and to gain input on a proposal that would make it easier to kill wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains to protect wildlife such as elk.

Officials say Wyoming could start killing wolves that harm or harass wildlife in early 2008, though that rule might remain in effect only for a few weeks if Fish and Wildlife delists the wolf in mid-February as planned.

The new delisting plan comes after Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service compromised on a wolf management plan in May. The compromise opens the way for Wyoming to join Idaho and Montana in removing the gray wolf from Endangered Species Act protection.

Drafted by U.S. Fish and Wildlife regional director Mitch King, the new plan echoes a Wyoming bill that sets the state’s goals for wolf management.  

In the compromise, Freudenthal accepted a larger area in which wolves would be considered trophy game than legislators had hoped for in the bill. In trophy-game areas, licenses must be obtained to shoot wolves. Outside the boundary, wolves would be considered predators and people could kill them using any means without a license.

The boundary line preferred by Wyoming officials would have, in essence, run along Forest Service lands adjacent to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Instead, the line will bisect Cody and extend south through private lands to the Wind River Range until Pinedale, where it heads northwest along 189 toward Jackson to Highway 22 and west to the Idaho border.

Fish and Wildlife officials say the larger trophy-game area is needed to ensure that at least 15 breeding pairs exist in Wyoming and the national parks.

Wyoming and Idaho have expressed concern that the growing wolf population is harming elk numbers. A proposed change to the so-called 10(j) rule addresses those concerns.

The current 10(j) rule, established in 2005, requires states to show that wolves are the primary cause of wildlife herds not meeting state or tribal management goals before any of the predators could be killed.

State officials say proving that wolves alone are the primary cause of wildlife declines is almost impossible.

The proposed changes to the rule would require the state to provide peer-reviewed proof that wolves have played a role in harming or harassing an ungulate population.

Any plan to kill wolves would then also require public comment before a final determination by Fish and Wildlife on whether to allow the wolves to be killed.

The 10(j) rule would remain in effect only until the wolf is delisted, then the states would take over management.

Terry Cleveland, director of Wyoming Game and Fish, has called the federal proposal a meaningful step that will help the state protect its elk herds. Game and Fish officials have said that at least three elk herd units are experiencing low cow-to-calf ratios because of wolf predation, though all of Wyoming’s elk populations are currently over the state’s objectives.

Conservation groups say the new 10(j) rule opens the doors to the days of aerial gunning of wolves at a time when elk populations across the Greater Yellowstone Area are booming. The rule, they say, could mean death for about 700 of the 1,300 wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Submit comments to WolfRuleChange@fws.gov (include RIN number 1018-Av39 in the subject line) or through the federal “e-rulemaking portal” at www.regulations.gov.