US wildlife officials want to strip grey wolves of their remaining endangered species protections and declare the species recovered following a decades-long restoration effort.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service proposal released Thursday would put wolves under state authority and allow hunting in more areas.
Critics argue the move is premature, with wolves still absent across most of their historic range.
Government officials say their goal was to protect against extinction, not restore wolves everywhere.
Trapping, poisoning and hunting exterminated wolves across most of the Lower 48 early last century. They bounced back under federal protection, and more than 6,000 now live in portions of nine states.
A final decision on lifting protections will follow a public comment period.
Wolves had previously lost federal protections in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, where hunters and trappers now kill hundreds of the animals annually.
Wildlife advocates and some members of Congress reacted with outrage to the latest proposal and promised to challenge any final decision in court.
Jamie Rappaport Clark, a former director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service now with the group Defenders of Wildlife, warned of an “all-out war on wolves” if the plan advances.
“We don’t have any confidence that wolves will be managed like other wildlife,” she said.
But government officials countered that the recovery of wolves from widespread extermination last century has worked and they no longer need the Endangered Species Act to shield them.
“Recovery of the grey wolf under the Endangered Species Act is one of our nation’s great conservation successes, with the wolf joining other cherished species, such as the bald eagle, that have been brought back from the brink,” US Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Gavin Shire said in an emailed statement.
Agriculture groups and lawmakers from Western states are likely to support the administration’s proposal.
Additional reporting by AP
