Wolf delisting survives budget fight as settlement crumbles
House and Senate appropriators have agreed to include a bipartisan proposal to remove Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves as part of a final compromise to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year.
The agreement came just hours before a federal judge in Montana rejected a more limited delisting proposal by environmentalists and the federal government that would have returned wolf management to Idaho and Montana but would have required other steps to ensure a continued recovery of the species throughout the northern Rockies states.