Interior Department officials along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held a meeting in Minnesota Thursday and announced that the Gray Wolf has been de-listed from the Endangered Species List in the United States. Minnesota Cattlemen’s Association Executive Director Allison VanderWal hails the decision and says that’s what her group has been working for for some time.

She says the Department of Natural Resources is in the process of updating the state’s wolf management plan and the Cattlemen’s Association is weighing in on the process.

VanderWal says had the Gray Wolf remained listed as an Endangered Species it would have continued to cause a great deal of losses to both cattle and sheep herds as a major predator.

VanderWal says both federal and state officials at Thursdays’ meeting agreed with the Minnesota Cattlemen’s Association that regulations are better handled at the state and local levels because those residents have a better handle on the issue and how it effects them

.