Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Proposed Establishment of a Nonessential Experimental Population of the Gray Wolf in Central Idaho Area

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) proposes to reintroduce the gray wolf (Canis lupus), an endangered species, into central Idaho in order to establish a population of wolves. This population would be classified as a nonessential experimental population according to section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Gray wolves 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 of a few wolves in Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington that result from the dispersal of wolves from Montana and Canada. This reintroduction is being proposed to reestablish a viable wolf population in the central Idaho area (including a portion of southwestern Montana), one of three wolf recovery areas that have been identified in the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan. Potential effects of this proposed rule were evaluated in an environmental impact statement completed in May 1994. This gray wolf reintroduction would not conflict with existing or anticipated Federal agency actions or traditional public uses of park lands, wilderness areas, or surrounding lands