CHEYENNE - Wyoming is continuing its legal fight to try to force the federal government to accept a state management plan for wolves that would include classifying them as predators that could be shot on sight in much of the state.

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, the state argues that the federal government rejected the state's proposed wolf management plan because of political considerations, not because of its scientific merits.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Tuesday he's confident that once a judge hears arguments on the merits of the state's plan, the courts will overturn the federal government's rejection of it.

"The wolf management plan adopted by state agencies and the Wyoming Legislature has solid science behind it," Freudenthal said. "It's unfortunate that we have to go to court to see that fact get the weight it deserves, but we have not been left a choice by the federal government's top-down approach."

Wyoming's proposed plan for managing the estimated 309 wolves in the state generally calls for leaving the animals alone in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The state proposes to allow trophy hunting for them in areas next to the parks and would allow wolves to be shot on sight as predators elsewhere in the state.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first rejected the state's plan in 2004. The state sued in response, saying the federal agency's action violated the "best science" requirement of the federal Endangered Species Act.

In that earlier case, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne ruled that the state's legal challenge was premature. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals this spring upheld Johnson's ruling that the Endangered Species Act didn't come into play because the federal government's rejection of the state's plan didn't determine wolves' status under the act.

This July, however, the federal government formally rejected Wyoming's petition to remove wolves in the state from the federal list of threatened and endangered species. That final action cleared the way for the state's present lawsuit. The latest lawsuit also was assigned to Judge Johnson in Cheyenne.