(Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday said it would lift Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf, arguing the species had been brought back successfully from the brink of extinction.
The move gives states in the continuous United States the authority to manage their local wolf populations, including by allowing them to be hunted. It will mainly affect wolf populations in the upper Midwest, Colorado and Pacific Northwest because wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains were previously delisted. Wolves have never been federally protected in Alaska.