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Traverse City, Mich. (AP) ― Gray wolves have recovered fully from the brink of extinction in the western Great Lakes region and no longer need federal protection there, the Bush administration said Thursday.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton said her department would propose removing the wolf from the endangered species list in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, where roughly 3,800 live.

The proposal also covers portions of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, which aren't believed to have wolves now. Individuals may eventually stray that far, although they are unlikely to form packs, officials said.

It does not affect gray wolves in other regions or the red wolf, a separate species found in the Southeast.

Under the federal proposal, state and tribal governments would take responsibility for ensuring that wolf populations remain healthy. Minnesota and Wisconsin have developed management plans that have been reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Michigan is updating its plan, first developed in 1997.

"Our proposal to delist the gray wolf indicates our confidence that those who will assume management of the species will safeguard its long-term survival," Norton said in a conference call with reporters.

The agency will conduct public hearings before making a final decision. The process could take up to a year, said Ron Refsnider, regional endangered species listing coordinator with the Fish and Wildlife Service at Fort Snelling, Minn.

The federal proposal drew support from several environmentalist groups, which said it illustrated the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

"The wolf's return in the Great Lakes region is one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the annals of wildlife conservation," said Peggy Struhsacker, wolf recovery manager for the National Wildlife Federation.

Wolf numbers in the three states are well above government thresholds for recovery, said Walter Medwid, executive director of the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minn.

Putting states and tribes in charge means farmers will encounter fewer bureaucratic hurdles in dealing with wolves that harass livestock, said Rob Anderson, legislative counsel for the Michigan Farm Bureau. The Minnesota and Wisconsin plans would allow limited killing of problem wolves, an issue under discussion in Michigan.

"If people get the impression that the policy isn't sensitive to the damage that wolves can cause, there's a greater danger that people will get the feeling they have to deal with it themselves," Anderson said.

Fewer than 1,000 gray wolves remained in the contiguous United States when the species was listed as endangered in 1974. The latest population estimates were 3,020 in Minnesota, 425 to 455 in Wisconsin and 405 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The northern section of Michigan's Lower Peninsula is probably the region's only remaining area where wolves could establish thriving packs, Refsnider said. State biologists say a few apparently crossed the frozen Straits of Mackinac into the Lower Peninsula in recent years, but no established pack has been found there.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's latest plan revises a strategy rejected by a federal judge in Oregon last year.

In April 2003, the agency divided the gray wolf's range into three areas and reclassified the Eastern and Western populations as threatened instead of endangered. The Eastern segment covered the area from the Dakotas east to Maine, while the Western segment extended west from the Dakotas. Wolves in the Southwest remained classified as endangered.

The agency in 2004 proposed removing the wolf in the Eastern segment from the endangered list.

But the judge ruled that the government acted improperly by combining areas where wolves were doing well with places where their numbers had not recovered.

The new proposal establishes the Western Great Lakes as a separate wolf population region.

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)