MINNEAPOLIS — A proposal that would have taken gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region and Wyoming off the endangered list did not make it into a massive year-end congressional tax and spending package, an omission welcomed Wednesday by groups that support maintaining federal protections for the predators.
Some lawmakers from the affected states had hoped to attach a rider to return management of wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Wyoming to the states, which could have opened the door to a resumption of wolf hunting in those places. The provision would have undone federal court decisions that restored the animals’ protected status in the four states despite repeated efforts by the federal government to remove them from the list.
But spokeswomen for U.S. Reps. Collin Peterson, D-Minnesota, and Reid Ribble, R-Wisconsin, who support returning the wolves to state management, and officials with wildlife groups that lobbied against the change, all said the proposal was left out of the final bill, which was unveiled late Tuesday.