Plan for federal wolf delisting clears U.S. House

PORTLAND – As the battle over Oregon’s recent delisting of the gray wolf as endangered is waged in a courtroom, the state’s lone Republican congressman helped convince the House to approve a plan to remove all protections for the species at the federal level.

The proposal cleared the chamber Wednesday with a 223-201 vote and now heads to the Senate,

It was introduced Monday by Oregon Rep. Greg Walden and Washington state Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dan Newhouse as an amendment to a large federal appropriations package.

The plan would enable the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to move forward with its proposal made three years ago to delist the gray wolf under the federal Endangered Species Act by 2017.

Population management would instead be at the discretion of the lower 48 states, although it wouldn’t directly impact state-level endangered species lists or wolf management plans in separate places such as Oregon.