Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Establishment of a Nonessential Experimental Population of Gray Wolves in Central Idaho and Southwestern Montana

Résumé

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) will reintroduce the gray wolf (Canis lupus), an endangered species, into central Idaho, including a portion of southwestern Montana. These wolves will be classified as a nonessential experimental population pursuant to section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Gray wolf populations have been extirpated from most of the Western United States. They presently occur in a small population in extreme northwestern Montana, and as incidental occurrences in Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington as a result of wolves dispersing from existing populations in Montana and Canada. The purpose of this reintroduction plan is to reestablish a viable wolf population in central Idaho, one of three wolf recovery areas identified in the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan. Potential effects of this final rule were evaluated in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) completed in May 1994. This gray wolf reintroduction does not conflict with existing or anticipated Federal agency actions or traditional public uses of park lands, wilderness areas, or surrounding lands.