CHEYENNE - Wyoming's dispute with the federal government over wolf management appears headed back to court.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Monday denied the state's plan to manage endangered gray wolves inside the state, culminating a yearlong agency review of the plan.

In addition to almost certainly sparking a return to the federal courtroom, the action means further delays in the delisting of wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, including in Montana and Idaho, even as the wolf population in the region soars.

"Everybody wants to get wolves delisted and managed by the state fish and game agencies, and we want to do everything we can to make that happen, but at this time we just cannot go forward with delisting proposals," said Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's gray wolf recovery coordinator.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal issued a brief news release Monday in which he confirmed the state's intention to fight the federal decision in court.

"The action by the Fish and Wildlife Service actually makes it easier for us to proceed to use a judicial forum to contest their decision to deny the petition," Freudenthal said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said its chief reason for denying Wyoming's plan is the insistence on classifying wolves as a predator species outside the state's northwestern corner. Predators in Wyoming can be killed on sight, and the agency believes the classification would make it hard for wildlife officials to maintain a healthy population of wolves in areas outside Yellowstone National Park.

The Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 and 1996 reintroduced gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park, Idaho and Montana. Once widespread in the northern Rockies, the animals were exterminated not long after Euro-Americans inhabited the area.

Since reintroduction, wolf numbers have far exceed the threshold required by law to remove the species from the endangered list. Despite human-caused mortality and a brush with disease last year, more than 1,000 wolves populate the region.

Stock growers have complained that wolves are killing livestock, and hunters and guides have complained that wolves are taking too many young elk in some areas.

Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said Monday's announcement is no surprise.

"So we will pursue the court remedy, and should that fail, maintaining the status quo with federal management might not be that bad," he said.

Abigail Dillen, a Bozeman, Mont., lawyer who fought Wyoming's plan in court, said she was relieved the federal government rejected what she called a "wolf-killing" plan.

"It's always been a recipe to reverse all the gains we've made over the past 10 years," said Dillen, who works for Earthjustice and represents the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council, which intervened on the side of the federal government in an earlier lawsuit.

The Fish and Wildlife Service briefly spelled out the minimum criteria to make Wyoming's wolf plan acceptable:

* It must classify wolves as trophy game, giving the Wyoming Game and Fish Department clear management authority. Under the current plan, the state livestock agency is in charge of wolves outside northwest Wyoming.

* The plan must commit to 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves in Wyoming in mid-winter.

* It must define a wolf pack by scientific standards "so that Montana, Idaho and Wyoming all use similar criteria." Wyoming's plan currently uses a slightly different standard than the other states.

* The plan must maintain some wolf packs in northwest Wyoming outside national parks.

"When the Wyoming regulatory framework has been modified and can be approved, the (Fish and Wildlife) Service intends to propose delisting and ask for additional public comment," Bangs said in a news release distributed on Monday.

Wyoming first sued the Fish and Wildlife Service after it rejected the state's wolf management plan in an April 2004 letter.

The courts ruled the lawsuit was not valid because the letter did not constitute a "final action." Monday's decision represents the final action, and a new starting point in the legal process.

State officials argue that science is on their side in this leg of the battle. They frequently cite a scientific peer-review that overwhelmingly says the Wyoming management plan is adequate.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Terry Cleveland has suggested that the federal rejection of the state's wolf plan is based on political and ideological motives rather than science.

The state has so far spent between $20,000 and $30,000 defending its plan in court. State Attorney General Pat Crank has said the next round of litigation could cost a similar amount.

"It is our hope that we can move expeditiously to proceed to get a judicial review of the scientific adequacy of the state's regulatory mechanism as passed by the Legislature," Freudenthal said in the news release.

Meanwhile, the federal government already has approve management plans by Montana and Idaho. Acceptable plans from all three states are required before wolves can be downgraded from the endangered status in the northern Rockies.

However, Bangs said Monday his agency is seriously considering requests by the governors of the other states to move ahead with delisting without Wyoming.

Reach capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@casperstartribune.net.