CHEYENNE - The Wyoming Senate on Tuesday approved a wolf management plan that calls for giving the governor's office authority to negotiate with the federal government over the boundaries of a permanent wolf area in the northwest corner of the state.

If the House agrees today with the Senate position, at least the boundary provisions of the state's wolf management plan could meet with federal approval.

On Monday, the Senate had voted to exclude most private land from a permanent management area in which wolves would be managed as trophy game animals. Outside that area, they would be managed as predators that could be shot on sight.

Mitch King, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, on Monday had said that any reduction of the management area his agency had proposed last fall would be unacceptable. He said a reduction would lead to his agency rejecting a state wolf management plan.

The proposal the federal government gave the state last fall calls for the wolf management area to extend from Cody south to Meeteetse, around the western boundary of the Wind River Indian Reservation, down to Pinedale, west to the Alpine area and then back north to Yellowstone National Park.

The Senate on Monday called for pushing the area's eastern boundary to the west, to the existing national forest boundary.

After the Senate vote Tuesday, King said it was critical for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office to have the latitude to negotiate a management plan that the federal agency can approve. He said he hadn't read the bill the Senate had approved, but said that based on his understanding of it, it would satisfy his agency's concerns over the boundary issue.

"I think we're well on our way," King said. He said the ultimate result depended on whether the House votes to agree with the Senate proposal.

Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, on Tuesday presented the compromise amendment on the management area boundary.

Scott called for leaving intact in the legislation a description of the boundary the Senate approved on Monday, as well as listing the original Fish and Wildlife Service proposal. He said the bill would give the governor authority to negotiate a management area boundary anywhere between those two, including possibly accepting the original federal proposal.

Scott said it makes sense to have wolves in the Yellowstone area, where they help to control deer and elk in an area where hunting isn't allowed. He said they also serve as a tourist attraction.

The federal government in 2004 rejected Wyoming's original wolf management plan. Federal officials are moving to take wolves off the federal list of threatened and endangered species in Idaho and Montana. They say they're prepared to leave federal protection in place in Wyoming if the state can't come up with an acceptable wolf management plan.

A meeting to gather public comment on the federal effort to remove wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act was held Tuesday night in Cheyenne.

State officials say legislative approval of the new wolf management plan could prove critical in state efforts to try to negotiate an end to litigation with the federal government.

State officials also say they believe that wolves are killing an unacceptable amount of elk and other wildlife in some areas of northwest Wyoming. Unless the lawsuit over wolf management is resolved, state officials say they fear there will be a period of perhaps several years between when the federal government formally removes wolves from Endangered Species Act protection and when litigation over that action wraps up.

Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, is chairman of the Senate committee that considers wildlife issues. He said settling the lawsuit with the federal government could prevent more litigation and speed up the time when the state can take over wolf management.

The plan the Senate endorsed contains language specifying that it would remain in effect only until next February unless the litigation is resolved and the state takes over management of wolves.

The Senate accepted an amendment proposed by Sen. Drew Perkins, R-Casper, that would authorize the Game and Fish Department to undertake "aggressive management" of wolves to protect domestic animals in addition to livestock. The bill would allow the state to use aerial hunting and other methods to kill wolves to protect private property.

Burns said he agreed with Perkins' proposal.

"If the wolves are hauling off my dog, I don't have time to call Game and Fish, I'm just going to shoot," Burns said. "And if a wolf is hauling off my dog, or anybody else's dog here, you're not going to hesitate. You're just going to do what you have to do."