Wolves were eventually eliminated in most states in an effort supported by the science community at the time. The ensuing conflicts over wolf management are the topic of this report. In May 2011, the U.S. However, the phrase distinct population segment had no meaning in the scientific community outside of the ESA, and was not used in ESA listings by FWS for nearly two decades. As a result of regulatory listings and court nullifications described below, wolves in the United States have been listed in all of the available categories for a vertebrate species: (1) never listed (Alaska); (2) delisted (in certain DPSs); (3) experimental populations (Southwest; Yellowstone and Central Idaho); (4) threatened (Minnesota); and (5) endangered (every wolf in the lower 48 states that was not in a DPS, experimental population, or in Minnesota). Gray Wolf Recovery Plans

Consistent with the ESA requirement of developing recovery plans for listed species, FWS developed recovery plans for the gray wolf based on its early listing at the subspecies level—the eastern timber wolf, the Mexican wolf, and the northern Rocky Mountain wolf. Suit was filed to compel FWS to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone. If this is upheld, the wolves in that Ex Pop (which consists only of Wyoming wolves as of May 5, 2011) would become part of the lower 48 states' general population and be classified as endangered. FWS has also filed a motion to have the action dismissed, in light of the reissuance of the 2009 rule as required by P.L. Blue Range Ex Pop

Wolves also had been extirpated in the Southwest. In January 2011 the population totaled 50. Gray Wolf DPSs

The gray wolf was originally listed at the species level as threatened in Minnesota, and endangered in the remainder of the lower 48 states. DPSs supplant Ex Pops, but when a DPS has been nullified, FWS returns the population to its Ex Pop status. On the same date as the Western Great Lakes rule was issued, FWS proposed designating a Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf DPS and delisting its population (see Figure 3 ), except for the Wyoming population because Wyoming's state laws were found to provide insufficient protection for the wolf. 2009 Western Great Lakes and Northern Rocky Mountain DPSs

In April 2009, FWS designated wolves in the Western Great Lakes and the Northern Rockies as DPSs and delisted them. FWS withdrew the 2009 rule and reinstated the gray wolf as endangered throughout most of the area and as threatened in Minnesota. Following successive court orders invalidating FWS's delisting rules, and in light of increasing populations of wolves in some parts of the country, the 111 th Congress began to consider legislative options to exclude the wolf from the protections of the ESA. 112-10 , §1713, directs FWS to delist the gray wolf in Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and north-central Utah, but leaves the wolves in the remaining lower 48 states federally protected as either threatened or endangered. Enactment of P.L. FWS reissued the 2009 rule on May 5, 2011. Proposed Rulemaking: Redefining Populations, Species, and Range

On May 5, 2011, in addition to reissuing the Northern Rocky Mountain DPS rule, FWS proposed changes to gray wolf protection. FWS proposed to do the following: designate the Western Great Lakes as a DPS and delist that DPS; revise the gray wolves' historic range by eliminating parts or all of 29 eastern states; initiate a five-year review for the gray wolf; initiate a status review of the gray wolf in the Pacific Northwest; initiate a status review of the Mexican wolf in the Southwest and Mexico; and recognize a new species of wolf, the eastern wolf ( Canis lycaon ). This would be consistent with FWS's statement that it intends to replace the 48-state listing with "more targeted regional units." This rule was vacated, as discussed in "2003 Western, Eastern, and Southwestern DPS Litigation." When the 2009 delisting of the Northern Rockies DPS was invalidated by a court, FWS reinstated the special rules regarding the Ex Pops in the area.
Even before passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), federal law protected the wolf, which was nearly eradicated in the lower 48 states by the mid-1900s. Following ESA enactment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) placed four gray wolf subspecies—the eastern timber wolf, the Mexican wolf, the Texas gray wolf, and the northern Rocky Mountain wolf—on the first ESA list of endangered species. In 1978, FWS replaced the subspecies listings by listing the gray wolf species (Canis lupus) as endangered in all of the conterminous 48 states except Minnesota, where FWS listed it as threatened. In 2011, FWS found that this listing was in error; that more targeted regional units were appropriate for wolves (notably in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest); that a newly recognized species, the eastern wolf (Canis lycaon), not the gray wolf, occupied the Northeast; and that all or parts of 29 eastern states should be removed from the gray wolf's historic range.
With the exception of experimental populations (Ex Pops) of gray wolves that FWS established in order to reintroduce wolves to selected areas, protections for the gray wolf have diminished as wolf populations have increased in areas such as the Northern Rocky Mountains. The use of distinct population segments (DPSs), a term created in the 1978 ESA amendments, has played a role in reduced protection. Through DPSs, vertebrate species may be divided into distinct groups, based on geography and genetic distinctions for listing purposes.
Ex Pops of wolves were reintroduced in three regions of the United States in the 1990s: Central Idaho, Yellowstone, and the Blue Range of Arizona and New Mexico. The Ex Pops in Central Idaho and Yellowstone have grown to over 1,650 wolves as of December 31, 2010, while the Mexican gray wolf population of the Blue Range has not surpassed 59 wolves, and as of January 2011 totaled 50.
ESA protection for wolf DPSs has varied since the first DPSs—Western, Eastern, and Southwestern—were proposed in 2003. Each effort by FWS to delist the wolf or designate a DPS has been rejected by a court or settled by the agency. Most recently, the April 2009 rules that had established and then delisted DPSs in the Western Great Lakes and the Northern Rockies were nullified as a result of litigation. As a consequence, the Northern Rockies wolves resumed their Ex Pop status, meaning they were treated as threatened in most circumstances but were endangered outside of the Ex Pop boundaries. Wolves in the rest of the lower 48 states were again endangered, with the exception of Minnesota wolves, which were threatened.
The April 2009 rule for the Northern Rockies was the topic of legislation in April 2011, when Congress took the unusual step of directing FWS to delist an endangered species. Section 1713 of P.L. 112-10 required FWS to reissue the 2009 Northern Rockies DPS rule. FWS's reissuance of that rule on May 5, 2011, ended federal protection of the gray wolf in Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and north-central Utah, but kept the wolf as a listed species in the remainder of the lower 48 states. Also on May 5, 2011, FWS proposed designating a DPS in the Western Great Lakes area and delisting those gray wolves. On October 5, 2011, FWS proposed delisting the wolves in the Wyoming DPS and terminating the Ex Pop. The proposal is contingent upon the Wyoming legislature's passing certain management requirements.
This report analyzes the ESA as it applies to gray wolves and, in particular, Ex Pops and DPSs.