CHEYENNE - The Bush administration's announcement Tuesday that it is formulating a new plan to remove federal protection for gray wolves is not expected to make an immediate difference in Wyoming, the state's top wildlife official said.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones of Oregon ruled that the Interior Department had improperly drawn boundaries for differing population segments; struggling wolf populations in Oregon and Washington were included with thriving packs in the Northern Rockies, and the small New England population was lumped in with robust wolf numbers in the Great Lakes area.

The judge held that Interior officials should not have lessened protection in those broad areas known as "distinct population segments" because the threats to wolves were not adequately addressed across the whole region.

New plans will include smaller geographic areas, such as a Montana-Idaho-Wyoming segment, according to Interior officials, who say they will not challenge the judge's ruling.

Echoing the opinion voiced by Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary Paul Hoffman last week at a legislative hearing, Wyoming Game and Fish Director Terry Cleveland said nothing will change for Wyoming until the state and the federal agency agree on several contentious issues.

One of those is Wyoming's proposal allowing landowners in much of the state to treat wolves as predators that can be killed without a license if the animals are damaging private property.

"Mr. Hoffman indicated that until Wyoming makes some changes regarding predatory animal status and lack of the Game and Fish Department's ability to regulate take in much of the state, they're going to deem that our plan is not satisfactory because it lacks an adequate regulatory mechanism," Cleveland said. "We don't agree with that, but that's what I got out of that discussion in Laramie."

Wyoming and the federal government are also at odds over how many packs the state should maintain outside the national parks and the definition of how many wolves comprise a pack, Cleveland said.

He said he doesn't expect any substantive movement on either side until the Interior Department completes a review of the state's petition to remove wolves from the threatened species list, which might not occur until July 2006.

The state is also pursuing a court appeal of the Interior Department's rejection of the state's wolf management plan.

Assistant Interior Secretary Craig Manson said Tuesday he continued to believe the department's earlier plan was "biologically and legally sound" but the agency would be issuing a new proposal "as early as possible in 2006."

Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff in the Oregon case, said the center would not oppose removing Endangered Species Act protection for wolves introduced in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park, or those naturally occurring in northern Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, as long as the Bush administration does not try to "gerrymander" the population boundaries again.

"We support the goal of delisting populations that are recovered," he said. "What we don't want is areas outside the areas where wolves have recovered to have protections removed in the process of delisting these robust populations. That's why where the lines are drawn is so crucial."