For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1. Excerpt: Gray wolves no longer face the threat of extinction, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Calling the recovery “one of the most remarkable success stories in the history of conservation," FWS Director Dan Ashe announced today the agency is proposing to remove all of the nation's wolves from the endangered species list, turning management over to states. Federal protection will remain for the Mexican wolf. ...in most states they'll still be under state-level endangered species protection. “No one suggests that gray wolves don’t require management,” Ashe said in a teleconference on Friday. “The issue is whether gray wolves still require federal protection under the endangered species act, and we believe quite clearly they do not." Friday’s de-listing proposal is already being questioned by some environmentalists who view the move as premature. “Wolves currently inhabit only a fraction of their former range, and this proposal will cut off wolf recovery from vast areas of suitable habitat out west where the species can still thrive,” Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of Defenders of Wildlife, said in a press release. But Ashe firmly told reporters at the teleconference that for wolves to be considered recovered, they do not need to occupy most or all of their historic range. He also said he expected to see wolves continue to expand into northern California, Utah, Nevada and Colorado under state management. Center for Biological Diversity’s endangered species director, Noah Greenwald, worried states would kill too many wolves under their management plans. ...Officials need to keep the total number of wolves around 140, with at least 10 breeding pairs, to avoid a re-listing.... http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/gray-wolves-to-be-removed-from-endangered-species-list. Emily Guerin, High Country News.