The grey wolf will be removed from the endangered species list in at least three U.S. states, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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SALMON, Idaho: Legal wolf hunting will is set to resume in the U.S. for the first time in decades, after wildife authorities announced plans to remove the wolf from the endangered species list in at least three states.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director H. Dale Hall said the decision was taken because the wolves had been successfully re-populated. "We're extremely proud to be announcing the recovery of the wolf," he said.

Hall and other officials said removing federal protections for the 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and proposing to lift them for the 1,200 wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming is proof that the Endangered Species Act, the nation's landmark conservation law, works.

Under both plans, states would have the authority to manage their wolf populations as they see fit so long as they maintain enough wolves to ensure their survival.

Wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin will be de-listed in a matter of weeks, while it will take a year to complete the public hearings and other requirements to remove wolves from the list in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Conservation groups hailed the plan for wolves in the Great Lakes region, applauding Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin for what they said were wolf-management plans that will ensure the survival of the species. But they heaped criticism on plans by Idaho and Wyoming.

"Idaho and Wyoming have state management plans that are geared toward wolf eradication, not wolf conservation," said U.S. non-profit Defenders of Wildlife president Rodger Schlickeisen in a statement.

Wolves in the United States were hunted to near-extinction a century ago under government-sponsored elimination programs designed to protect livestock. By 1974, when wolves were classified as endangered, the only documented wolf packs in the lower 48 states were in Minnesota and Michigan.

In 1995, federal wildlife biologists released 66 wolves into the wilds of central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in the hope they would re-establish themselves in their native range. But the wolf's restoration in the western regions has been greeted with outrage by ranchers and hunters, who make up the region's most powerful lobbies.

They contend wolves are a nuisance, threatening livestock and causing declines in big-game populations. They have campaigned tirelessly to persuade state political leaders and federal officials that their numbers should be cut dramatically.

If the proposals to de-list wolves in the six states survive legal challenges, each state will be required to manage a minimum of 300 wolves, the number biologists say constitutes a recovered population. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming intend to use public hunting and other methods to keep wolf populations down to what they consider a manageable size. Federal oversight would begin should numbers fall below the minimum 300.

In Idaho, where anti-wolf sentiments run high, Governor Butch Otter has called for the killing of 550 wolves, or 85 per cent of the state's wolf population.

Plans are under way to open a wolf hunting season, and Idaho wildlife officials have proposed killing off packs where they say wolves have caused unacceptable declines in popular game species, such as elk. While protected by the Endangered Species Act, it was generally illegal to kill wolves unless they were posing an imminent threat to life or property.