Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Reinstatement of Protections for the Gray Wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains in Compliance With a Court Order

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are issuing this final rule to comply with a court order that has the effect of reinstating the regulatory protections under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA), for the gray wolf (Canis lupus) in most of the northern Rocky Mountains. Pursuant to the District of Montana court order dated August 5, 2010, this rule corrects the gray wolf listing for the northern half of Montana, the northern panhandle of Idaho, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon, and north-central Utah as endangered and reinstates the former special rules designating the gray wolf in the remainder of Montana and Idaho as nonessential experimental populations. Because ESA protections were not removed in Wyoming by our April 2, 2009 (74 FR 15123), final delisting rule, Wyoming is not impacted by this final rule.