Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-Month Finding on a Petition To Establish the Northern Rocky Mountain Gray Wolf Population (Canis lupus) as a Distinct Population Segment To Remove the Northern Rocky Mountain Gray Wolf Distinct Population

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 12-month finding on a petition to establish the northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) gray wolf (Canis lupus) population as a Distinct Population Segment (DPS) and to remove the NRM gray wolf DPS from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife, under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA). After review of all available scientific and commercial information, we find that the petitioned action is not warranted. We have determined that Wyoming State law and its wolf management plan do not provide the necessary regulatory mechanisms to assure that Wyoming's numerical and distributional share of a recovered NRM wolf population would be conserved if the protections of the ESA were removed.