pemThe New York Timesimg alt=”” class=”no_caption_right” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/wolf_3.jpg” style=”width: 300px; height: 200px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; float: right;” //em/ppspan style=”color:#000000;”span style=”font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS/span/span/ppspan style=”font-size:12px;”span style=”color:#000000;”span style=”line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”Bynbsp;/spanspan itemprop=”author creator” itemscope=”” itemtype=”http://schema.org/Person” style=”line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”JIM DUTCHER/spanspan style=”line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”,nbsp;/spanspan itemprop=”author creator” itemscope=”” itemtype=”http://schema.org/Person” style=”line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”JAMIE DUTCHER/spanspan style=”line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”nbsp;andnbsp;/spanspan itemprop=”author creator” itemscope=”” itemtype=”http://schema.org/Person” style=”line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”GARRICK DUTCHER/span/span/span/ppspan style=”font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2em;”Published: June 7, 2013/span/ppspan style=”font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;”KETCHUM, Idaho mdash; It has been celebrated as one of the great victories of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. After several decades of federal protection, gray wolves mdash; once nearly wiped out in the continental United States mdash; have reached a population of roughly 6,100 across three Great Lakes states and seven Western states./span/ppspan style=”font-size:11px;”span style=”font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;”But this success has been only partial. The centuries-old war against wolves continues to rage, particularly in states where the species has lost federal protection in recent years, as management of wolf populations was turned over to the states./span/span/ppspan style=”font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.467em;”On Friday, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service put forward a proposal that would make matters even worse. It proposed stripping the remaining federal protections for the gray wolf in the rest of the United States (with the exception of the extremely rare Mexican gray wolf in Arizona and New Mexico). Removing gray wolves from the nationalnbsp;/spana href=”http://www.fws.gov/endangered/” style=”font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(102, 102, 153);”endangered species list/aspan style=”font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.467em;”nbsp;in the areas where they are still protected would be a mistake. The protections should remain, so that the species can continue its recovery and expand its range, just as the bald eagle and the alligator were allowed to do./span/ppa href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/opinion/dont-forsake-the-gray-wolf.html?pagewanted=print”span style=”font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.467em;”Read full editorial at the emNew York Times/em/span/a/p