Garminator said, "I think the fed govt has got to step in and do something about regulating the wolf population."
Respectfully, the reason we have problems with Timber wolves (Gray) is that the federal gov't did step in and did something about regulating the wolf pop. In 1973 the federal gov't put the Timber wolf on the endangered species list.
People out West are just starting to see the results of these good intensions gone crazy.
In the lower 48, I think without a doubt Minnesota still has the largest pop. of wolves. For over 30 years people in the northern 1/3 of the state in particular have had to deal with an over pop. of this predator. Whitetail pop. in heavy snow years (e.g. 95, 96) have taken enormous swings down.
Near the shore of Lake Superior the deer pop. held up a little better. But inland it took a decade after those years when wolves were killing the deer herds and most of them weren't eaten except for the prime parts by the wolves.
Wolves like any large predator have their place in the whole system. But so does man/(woman) to help keep those predators including the wolves in check. Beyond a certain pop. level, the wolf is a destructive force. If left go too far, it'll cause its own pop. to drop significantly when the man prey animals are killed off or at least to a point that the predators can't be sustained.

MN has tried to get a wolf pop. plan in place, so that limited hunting/trapping can be done in high pop. areas like NE MN. However, each time the greenie weenies scream and bawl and carry on like someone is talking about hunting their mothers! Of course many of them think the Earth in their mom, so how do you have a rational discussion with people like that or politicians in Wash. DC or states' capitols where many of them wouldn't know a wolf from Lassie or a deer from a character in a Disney movie.
I hope you folks out West have more success talking sense into your state leaders to push for limits on large predators like Gray wolf and Grizzlies than we have had in MN on the former. Good luck!