Gray wolves will likely no longer be a protected species

In what is sure to be a controversial move, U.S. wildlife officials are planning to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokesman Gavin Shire told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is expected to formally announce the move on Wednesday during a speech at a wildlife conference in Denver.

The decision, Shire said, results from the species' successful recovery from near extermination in the 20th century. But gray wolves are also often at the center of debates. Conservationists want protections to remain intact until the wolves — most of whom live in the Western Great Lakes and Northern Rockies — can reclaim more of their historic, continent-wide range. Farmers and ranchers, on the other hand, argue that now-sustainable populations are encroaching on their land and feasting upon their livestock.

Gray wolves received endangered species protection in 1975, and the animal's population is now larger than 5,000 in the United States. Fish and Wildlife considers that number healthy enough to declare the species recovered, despite the fact that the wolves only occupy a fraction of their former territory.

Shire added that the public will have a chance to comment before a binding decision is made in the coming months.