LANDER - In an attempt to turn the tide in the legal battle over wolf delisting, a Wyoming legislator has proposed a new bill to change the Cowboy State's wolf management plan.

State Representative Keith Gingery of Jackson Hole is calling for a single, statewide trophy game status for wolves, and a revision of Wyoming's livestock and wildlife depredation laws.

He argues the two changes would ensure state, rather than federal, management of wolves.

Gingery's idea received an immediate, favorable reaction from House Speaker Roy Cohee of Casper on Thursday evening.

But a livestock industry representative said he would be opposed to making any alterations to the Wyoming wolf plan.

Gingery's bill comes after reports that the Bush administration wishes to back away from the legal fight over its decision to remove wolves from Endangered Species Act protection.

In a prepared statement, Gingery said his proposed bill would "resolve the issues highlighted by Federal District Court Judge Molloy in his recent ruling against the State of Wyoming's wolf management plan."

"My constituents, especially in the Dubois area, want this issue resolved once and for all," Gingery said. "They want state management of the wolves, as opposed to federal control. They know they already lost the battle to be in the predator status area, thus they simply want to move forward with getting the courts to agree to state management."

The only way to get there, Gingery argues, is create one classification for wolves in Wyoming, instead of two, and to revise the state's depredation laws so they are similar to those in Idaho and Montana.

"If we make those two changes, then we can move directly to state control," Gingery said.

The Bush administration removed wolves from the endangered species list in March, handing over management of the canines to the Northern Rockies states. That decision was almost immediately challenged in Molloy's court by a dozen conservation and animal rights organizations.

Molloy issued an injunction against the wolf delisting decision in July, restoring federal endangered species status to wolves, citing, among other things, what he saw as problems with Wyoming's plan.

Under the Cowboy State plan, wolves in the extreme northwest corner of the state - where most of the canines live - are considered trophy game animals, similar to cougars, and are afforded some protections. But in the rest of the state wolves are designated as predators, similar to coyotes, and - before the injunction - they could be legally killed on sight for any reason, without limits.

This "shoot on sight" zone caught the ire of conservationists worldwide and was eyed with suspicion in Molloy's injunction ruling.

In that decision, Molloy sided with the conservation organizations that brought the suit against delisting, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to ensure genetic exchange between the three main wolf populations in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, and had flip-flopped on Wyoming's "dual status" plan, by first rejecting it and then accepting it, without justification for the change.

Ed Bangs, the federal gray wolf recovery coordinator, said this week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to ask Molloy to withdraw the delisting rule, essentially stepping away from litigation.

When asked if Wyoming will be pressured to alter its wolf management plan, Bangs declined to speculate.

House Speaker Cohee on Thursday said he believes Gingery's bill has a chance to garner support in the Wyoming House of Representatives. When asked if he would consider a single, trophy game status for wolves statewide, Cohee said, "Absolutely."

"There's always a compromise to be made," he said. "The dual status was a compromise itself. (Gingery's proposal) is a reasonable idea and will satisfy, to some degree, the demands and wishes of most people. It should have room for discussion."

But Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, chairman of the House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, said he had some doubts about the proposal, especially its timing.

When asked if he would consider a statewide trophy game status for wolves, Childers was hesitant:

"For one thing, we don't know what the Fish and Wildlife Service is going to do for sure," Childers said. "I'm not going to say one way or another what I would do. We'd have to discuss it with a number of people. And I think it's even more important that the people impacted the most be included in the discussion. I can just about assure you that the livestock people are going to say, 'No.' And I don't blame them."

Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association, echoed Childers' concerns, as well as his prediction about the livestock industry's response.

"I think it premature for us to be talking about bills in Wyoming," Magagna said. "Fish and Wildlife has announced that they will petition the court to remand the decision back to them, and we don't know if the court will go along with that."

Beyond that, he said, the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association would "strongly oppose any efforts to significantly change the current Wyoming state management plan."

"I can't think of anything in it that I would be agreeable to changing," Magagna said. "We did our original plan, went back to the legislature, did this one. Our view at this point in time is the state should say, "This is our last and best effort, either you accept it or reject it."'

For his part, Gingery argued the ongoing uncertainty about the status of wolves is detrimental to Wyoming's citizens and that more litigation is clearly "not the answer."

"It is time to do what is needed to get state control, and for the state to start managing wolves," Gingery said. "The people of Wyoming have a lot more trust in the Game and Fish Commission to make good management decisions, rather than a federal agency."

Contact environment reporter Chris Merrill at (307) 267-6722 or chris.merrill@trib.com