BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) _ Idaho and Montana officials are seeking
legal grounds to revive gray wolf hunts in the Northern Rockies,
and planned to meet Tuesday with environmentalists whose lawsuit
restored the animal's endangered status.

The states hosted their first managed wolf hunts last year after
the species rebounded from near-extermination last century.

This year's hunts are likely blocked by an Aug. 6 U.S. District
Court ruling. But state officials say they will ask the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service for permission to hold future hunts to curb
wolf attacks on livestock.

They point to the legal harvest of other protected species such
as salmon and bull trout as a precedent.

Environmental groups have vowed to stop attempts to circumvent
the federal court ruling.


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