''This state has a reputation for being able to manage wildlife and manage them well,'' commission president Bill Williams said. ''I think we have to ask everyone to take a bit of a leap of faith here.''

Wyoming's plan will be submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which rejected the state's first proposal for not adequately protecting wolves.

The federal agency must approve the state plan in order for it to move forward with removing special protections for wolves under the Endangered Species Act. The agency has already approved state management plans in Montana and Idaho, where the wolves are also located.

Wyoming's latest management plan has been criticized by environmentalists who say it falls short of providing wolves with protections and adequate habitat.

''I am disappointed. I think we could have done better,'' Franz Camenzind, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, said after the commission vote. ''But this is an incredible emotional issue. You know this is the way democracy plays out; it's not always pretty. But we live with it. Live with the results.''

Ranchers and outfitters also had criticized the plan for allowing too many wolves to prey on livestock and big game wildlife.

But during public testimony before the commission's vote, most spoke in support of the management plan.

''We frankly thought the first Wyoming plan was good and continue to believe so,'' Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said. ''But obviously that wasn't going to get us to delisting. So this is a modified approach that again, with the right details in place, we believe can work to minimize the impacts.''

Wyoming has about 300 wolves. The Wyoming management plan commits the state to maintaining at least 15 breeding pairs of wolves, or about 100. Seven breeding pairs would be located primarily outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway. Another eight pairs would be located within the two parks and the parkway.

The wolves outside the parks and the parkway would be managed by the state Game and Fish Department as either trophy game that can be killed and hunted by state-issued permit or as predators that can be killed with little oversight. Wolves would be trophy game in northwest Wyoming, which has thousands of acres of national forest and wilderness, and predators in the remainder of the state.

The department would issue specific regulations for hunting wolves, compensating ranchers for wolf-killed livestock and other related issues. The regulations would only take effect if the wolves are delisted.

Williams noted the state's plan was ''dynamic'' and ''flexible'' enough to allow Wyoming game managers room to adjust how they manage wolves.

''There will be a little learning process for the department, but these guys are wildlife professionals that are second to none in the country,'' he said. ''They'll learn the finer points of managing wolves and we'll coexist just fine.''