Washington, D.c. (ap) — A Senate committee has approved a Republican amendment to strip federal protection from gray wolves in three Great Lakes states and Wyoming. The measure also prohibits courts from intervening in those states on behalf of the embattled predator.

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming sponsored the amendment to delist the gray wolf in Wyoming, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. The Senate Environment Committee approved the bill and it now goes to the full Senate.

Barrasso says the amendment recognizes that the four states have workable plans to protect wolves without federal intervention. He says it's time to "recognize the science and focus our scarce taxpayer resources on truly imperiled species."

Wolves are well-established in the western Great Lakes and Northern Rockies after facing near-extermination in the last century.

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