DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997               TAG: 9703060354

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON, N.C.                  LENGTH:   25 lines

2 N.C. COUNTIES CHALLENGE WOLF PROGRAM

A lawsuit filed by two eastern North Carolina counties and two property owners claims the Fish and Wildlife Service is unable to monitor or control the red wolves it has released into the wild.

Hyde and Washington counties, along with Hyde County residents Charles Gilbert Gibbs Sr. and Richard Lee Mann, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Raleigh on Monday. County officials and the two landowners had already informed the U.S. Department of the Interior last fall that they planned to file the lawsuit. The federal government requires a 60-day notice before a lawsuit can be filed against it.

The lawsuit says the federal government is exercising undue control over private property in seeking to protect the wolves.

The lawsuit asks that the court declare invalid all federal regulations relating to the killing or trapping of red wolves on private land in Hyde and Washington counties. KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT RED WOLVES

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