NORTHWEST MONTANA — Four-way talks between Wyoming, Idaho, Montana governors and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to come up with a plan to delist wolves in the Rocky Mountains came up empty last week.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer told the Associated Press he endorsed a plan that would have allowed a hunt in Montana of about 170 wolves, but talks broke down. Meanwhile, congressional lawmakers have at least five bills that would delist the controversial predator from the Endangered Species Act. Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus have co-sponsored a bill that would delist wolves in Montana as long as there’s an Interior Department approved-state management plan. Congressman Denny Rehberg supports a bill that delists wolves carte blanche, but it’s a bill by Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah that has garnered the most attention.

Hatch’s bill delists wolves in the Lower 48 and preempts outstanding lawsuits as well as prevents further litigation. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, one of 13 environmental groups that brought a lawsuit that landed wolves back on the ESA after about a year off the list, would like to see an agreement negotiated, rather than through congressional action.

“We’re still hopeful there can be some negotiation that can solve this,” Coalition spokesman Jeff Welsch said on Monday, “without having to take some chinks out of the ESA.”

Welsh said his group is worried about the congressional precedent of singling out a single species for exclusion from the ESA. If a wolf bill passes, Welsch predicted other species, like grizzly bears and Delta smelt — an endangered fish that’s having an impact on water projects in California — could be next.

“If it’s inconvenient, remove it from the ark,” he said.

Welsch said the Coalition does not oppose a state-managed wolf hunt that sustains a population of wolves in the tristate area of 1,300 to 1,500 animals. Whether Congress will take up the wolf bills in the waning days of the 2010 session remains to be seen. The political winds seem to shift on a daily basis and a wolf measure could end up attached to a larger spending bill or Interior bill. Environmental groups and wolf opponents do agree on one thing: The wolf is a recovered species. How, exactly, it will be managed, is the debate.