ORONO – Maine will be the only state in the Northeast where a public hearing will be held on a federal proposal to remove gray wolves in the eastern United States from the list of threatened and endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is to conduct the meeting from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20, at the Black Bear Inn and Conference Center at 4 Godfrey Boulevard in Orono.

The event is to consist of a 60-minute informational meeting from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., followed by the official public hearing from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

While nine other hearings have taken place in Great Lakes states, this is the only hearing scheduled in any states in the Northeast, according to a Friday press release from the Defenders of Wildlife’s environmental network.

On July 16, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a proposal to remove protections for wolves in the entire Eastern region of the United States.

According to a recent news release from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the gray wolf has recovered in the eastern United States since it was first listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1974.

The federal agency says the wolf population in Minnesota has expanded; the latest count in 1998 found at least 2,450 wolves, and more recent data does not show a decline. An additional population is well-established in Michigan and Wisconsin, with numbers there of 360 and 373, respectively.

The Defenders of Wildlife release states that “although wolves are making a comeback in the northern Rockies and Great Lakes states, the FWS should not back away from wolf restoration until wolves are fully recovered in areas where suitable habitat remains.”

According to the release, the proposal arbitrarily ignores significant areas within the historic range of the gray wolf where the potential for substantial recovery (greater than 100 wolves) has been demonstrated or may be revealed through ongoing or future evaluations.

“This proposed rule will revert wolf management back to state management agencies in the Northeast. These states have shown an inability or unwillingness to recover and protect wolves within their boundaries,” the release said.

Maine Audubon spokeswoman Marie Malin said Thursday that recovery efforts have yielded healthy wolf populations in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. But the plan, Malin said, would eliminate federal protection for wolves in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York, states that have yet to re-establish wolf populations, but still have 26 million acres of previously occupied wolf habitat.

In a press release Thursday, Maine Audubon wildlife ecologist Jody Jones said, “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must not walk away from wolf recovery in the Northeast.”

She said the federal agency has an obligation under the Endangered Species Act to restore wolves outside of the Midwest, and must include the forests of the Northeast, which are historic and important habitat for wolves.

Last November, Maine Audubon joined a federal lawsuit charging that Fish and Wildlife’s decision to abandon wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast violated the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Malin said the statewide wildlife conservation organization continues to fight for wolf recovery, because without wolves and other “keystone” predators, ecosystems ultimately suffer.

“Restoring gray wolves to Maine would not only improve the health of Maine’s ecosystems, it also would provide a source’ population for recovery should the Midwest population diminish again,” Jones said.

In the Maine Audubon press release, Executive Director Kevin Carley said that wolves have stimulated eco-tourism activity and attracted visitors to recovery areas.

“As more attention is focused on Maine’s potential for expanding nature-based tourism, it’s interesting to note that public interest in wolves, wolf viewing, and wolf-based education programs has far exceeded expectations in Yellowstone National Park, where the return of wolves is one of the most successful stories in the history of wildlife conservation,” he said.