An interim legislative committee on Thursday picked a bill to sponsor in the upcoming Legislature intended to address some of a federal judge's concerns about Wyoming's plan to manage wolves.

But lawmakers don't appear ready to provide at least some level of protection for wolves throughout the entire state.

The Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee selected one bill out of six proposals discussed at a Thursday meeting in Casper.

The panel favors a bill that would keep the state's dual classification for wolves, allowing for a trophy game area and maintaining a predator area in part of the state. A proposal to eliminate the predator area and classify wolves as trophy game throughout Wyoming received no support from committee members.

"We don't want trophy game status in the entire state," said Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie. "It just doesn't make any sense down in the corn fields in Goshen County."

The Legislature's re-entry into lawmaking for wolf management comes in response to numerous developments in a yearslong battle over management and hunting of gray wolves.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in February that it was removing gray wolves in the Northern Rockies from the endangered species list, opening the door for Wyoming, Idaho and Montana to implement hunting seasons for the animals.

This summer, a federal judge in Montana restored the wolves' endangered status in response to a lawsuit filed by environmentalists who felt state management would result in the loss of too many wolves.

Critics of Wyoming's wolf management plan were particularly concerned about a provision classifying wolves as predators in most of Wyoming, meaning the animals could be shot for any reason. In the Yellowstone area, where most of the wolves live, Wyoming managed wolves under stronger protections as a trophy species.

Under the bill favored by the committee Thursday, it would be up to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to determine the boundary between the trophy and predator areas. Brown said that's part of an effort to address the judge's concerns about lack of contact between wolves in the Yellowstone area, central Idaho and northern Montana.

The bill also clarifies that when wolves are removed from federal protection, ranchers or their employees can shoot any gray wolf "biting, wounding, grasping or killing" livestock or harassing livestock in a manner indicating that the wolves are about to attack. That's a change from the current state plan, which contains language that would allow wolves to be killed if they're in the vicinity of livestock - a provision the federal judge criticized.

And the bill would clarify the state's commitment to maintain at least 15 breeding pairs of wolves in Wyoming, another point of criticism from the judge.

But lawmakers aren't ready to give up on the dual classification system. Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg testified that the dual classification is legally defensible, said Brown and Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, a committee co-chairman.

Before the Fish and Wildlife Service dropped its delisting plan this year, it had agreed to Wyoming's dual classification system. That decision had followed several years of litigation during which the federal agency had opposed the system.

"A lot of us felt we were winning" during that round of litigation, Brown said. "We don't think we need to give in."

The Fish and Wildlife Service is now working to implement a 2007 plan to end federal protection for gray wolves in Montana and Idaho. That plan would also allow lifting federal protection for wolves in Wyoming, but only if the federal agency rules that Wyoming's management plan was adequate.

It remains to be seen what, if any, changes are made to the Wyoming plan during the legislative session, which begins in January.

"There's going to be lots of other opinions and input and amendments on the bill during the general session," Burns said.