The Yellowstone National Park wolves and other reintroduced wolves in parts of Montana and Idaho, won’t have to be exterminated, at least for now, following a ruling by the 10^th U.S. District Court of Appeals in Denver.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver voted 3 to 0 to reverse a 1997 Wyoming lower court ruling that the wolves be removed and a controversial five-year program to reestablish the wolves in Yellowstone be abandoned.

Wolves had been virtually absent from the Rocky Mountain region for more than 60 years -- killed off or chased away by ranchers and exterminated by federal game wardens -- until the Department of the Interior reintroduced them in 1995 at Yellowstone and wilderness areas in neighboring Idaho.

Ranchers represented by the Chicago-based American Farm Bureau Federation launched a legal battle against the wolves, arguing the plan violated the Endangered Species Act because some small groups of wolves were already in neighboring Montana. They were joined in that suit by the National Audubon Society which agreed with the Farm Bureau, but not for the same reasons. Ranchers said they feared that wolves would attack their livestock.

Audubon joined the suit on the Farm Bureau’s side, because the experimental designation meant that any non-introduced wolves that might be in the area would be subject to extermination because they could be mistaken for the introduced animals. Audubon was heavily criticized by other environmental groups for its stance.

The program was introduced with Super Bowl-like hype in 1995 when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt accompanied the wolves through the brick entrance gate at Yellowstone’s northwestern corner. Babbitt said on Thursday that the appeals court decision vindicated the government's efforts on behalf of the wolf.

"Wolf reintroduction is a powerful demonstration of this nation's commitment to protecting and restoring endangered species,'' Babbitt said in a statement.

The original 30 wolves were kidnapped in Canada. Fifteen were sent to Yellowstone, while the rest went to Idaho. A total of 116 wolves, including nine reproducing packs, now roam the Yellowstone region. The recovery plan spelled out in the EIS requires 10 breeding pairs of wolves to reproduce three years in a row in each of three areas - Yellowstone, Central Idaho and northwest Montana - before wolves can be removed from the federal list of endangered species.

About 140 wolves now roam Idaho, while numbers of wolves in Montana lag behind at about 60.

The program is scheduled to end in 2002. At that time scientists hope to have 10 breeding pairs in each of the three areas and hope that the wolf can be taken off the endangered species list or least shifted to ``threatened" status. The animals will then be monitored for five years to make sure they were doing well.

Wolves which attack livestock in the recovery regions are removed, either by recapture and relocation or by killing them. A privately-funded program has been set up to reimburse ranchers who lose cattle or sheep.

With a few exceptions, most wolves have remained on public lands, have reproduced faster and have killed fewer livestock than the EIS predicted they would. Ed Bangs, head of the federal wolf recovery program, said he remains disappointed state wildlife agencies have not taken a greater role in wolf monitoring and management, but said he hopes this week's court decision will make them more comfortable with assuming such a role.

When U.S. District Judge William Downes in Wyoming ruled in 1997 that the wolves must go, he also postponed implementation of the order, saying the wolves could stay until a higher court decided the matter. He originally ruled the reintroduction program was contrary to what Congress intended under the Endangered Species Act because it would have afforded less protection to a colony of wolves already living in Montana.