Saying the gray wolf has successfully recovered in parts of the West, including Oregon, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today affirmed a federal decision to remove them from the list of threatened and endangered species.

Conservationists quickly decried Salazar's action as premature and misguided.

The decision covers gray wolf populations in the western Great Lakes, Idaho, Montana and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah. Wolves will remain a protected species in Wyoming, where current state law and wolf management plans do not offer sufficient protection for the existing wolves.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its decision to remove the wolf from the list of threatened and endangered species in January, but President Barack Obama froze the last minute Bush administration act for review.

Salazar lifted the freeze this morning.

"The recovery of the gray wolf throughout significant portions of its historic range is one of the great success stories of the Endangered Species Act," Salazar said. "When it was listed as endangered in 1974, the wolf had almost disappeared from the continental United States. Today, we have more than 5,500 wolves, including more than 1,600 in the Rockies."

Steve Pedery, conservation director of Oregon Wild, said the action threatened the return of wolves to Oregon and the future of "the icon of American wilderness."

"Misguided wildlife management policies drove wolves in Oregon to extinction over 50 years ago," Pedery said. "True recovery of gray wolves in Oregon will depend on healthy wolf populations existing in neighboring states.

"Unfortunately, Secretary Salazar's decision to reinstate the Bush wolf policy will put these animals back in the crosshairs in Idaho, Wyoming and elsewhere in the West, and endanger recovery in Oregon."

Pedery urged the Obama Administration to reinstate the protective listing for gray wolves.

Gray wolves were listed as endangered in the lower 48 states, except in Minnesota, where they were listed as threatened. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversees three recovery programs for the gray wolf -- each with its own recovery plan and goals based on the unique characteristics of wolf populations in each geographic area.

The northern Rocky Mountain Distinct Population Segment includes all of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon and a small part of north-central Utah. The minimum recovery goal for the region is at least 30 breeding pairs and at least 300 wolves for at least three consecutive years. That goal was achieved in 2002 and has been exceeded each year since.

There are currently about 95 breeding pairs and 1,600 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Federal officials will continue to work with the State of Wyoming to develop adequate state protection for the wolves there.

Salazar credited the work of states, tribes, landowners, researchers, sportsmen and conservation groups and the Canadian government with the return of the Gray wolf.

The service will monitor the delisted wolf populations for at least five years to ensure their recovery continues. At that time, the service could decide to relist the wolves, continue monitoring or end its monitoring.

Wolves in other parts of the 48 states remain endangered and are not affected by today's action.

--Abby Haight, abbyhaight@news.oregonian.com