The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service went forward with a plan Monday to end federal protection for wolves in Idaho and Montana but not Wyoming despite the threat of lawsuits from conservation groups and sportsmen.

The decision puts management of roughly 1,350 wolves in the hands of Idaho and Montana wildlife managers, opening the way for hunting wolves in those states. Federal officials say they will keep Wyoming’s roughly 300 wolves under Endangered Species Act protection until the state comes up with an acceptable management plan for the controversial predators.

Numerous groups on both sides of the issue, including Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg, have threatened to file lawsuits to stop the action.

Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance Executive Director Franz Camenzind said his group has no choice but to sue.

“We’re disappointed that this is happening,” he said Monday. “The only prospect we have is a court case.”

Camenzind said the delisting is “vulnerable” because the Fish and Wildlife Service has not ensured genetic connectivity between populations in the Greater Yellowstone Area and populations in central Idaho. He also said the animals have inadequate protection from human-caused deaths. Wolves, he said, have only about 3 million acres where they are really protected and more than 20 million where they face threats from human hunting and predator control, he said. 

“It really puts the spotlight on this tiny little island of protection, which is Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park,” he said.

“They’re really not safe in very much of this great place. We want a management plan that is going to ensure their well-being as well as protecting the needs of private interests.”

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, which declined to sue over the federal government’s previous attempt to delist wolves, will likely file a separate lawsuit, said the group’s conservation director, Craig Kenworthy.

“We don’t like the precedent of splitting what was originally an ecosystem population into essentially two groups,” he said.

Kenworthy agreed with Camenzind that genetic connectivity is also an issue.

Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife Wyoming Executive Director Bob Wharff said his group also isn’t happy with the decision to split the region’s wolves into two groups.

Unlike many conservation groups, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife has supported Wyoming’s management plan, which would allow wolves to be killed at any time and by any means in all but the northwest corner of the state.

Wharff said Wyoming’s management plan has withstood scientific scrutiny and the federal government should accept it.

“It’s more of a political protest that they haven’t delisted wolves in Wyoming than a scientific reality,” he said. “... Wyoming’s plan is right and is biologically sustainable.”

This is the second time Fish and Wildlife has attempted to delist wolves in the region. Last year, a U.S. district judge in Montana halted the delisting. The judge’s decision was largely based on what he said were deficiencies in Wyoming’s plan. He also raised issues about genetic connectivity between populations.