MINNESOTA ? Declaring it’s time to celebrate the dramatic comeback of the gray wolf, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Friday the predator should be removed from federal protection from Maine to the Dakotas.

“The recovery of wolf populations in the Rockies and the Great Lakes area has been one of the most notable success stories of the Endangered Species Act,” Norton said at the Wildlife Science Center.

The gray wolf, also known as the timber wolf, has bounced back from the brink of extinction in the lower 48 states in the past 30 years under federal protection. Their numbers have grown from as few as 350, all in northeastern Minnesota, to almost 4,000.

The National Wildlife Federation criticized the plan as shortsighted because the government won’t be involved in efforts to reintroduce the wolf in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.