The state of Wyoming will continue to compensate ranchers for livestock losses to wolves even though a federal judge has stripped the state of control over the predators.

A U.S. District Judge in Missoula last week entered an injunction blocking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from removing federal Endangered Species Act protections from wolves in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

A spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department says that state law calls for spending $540,000 over the next two years to compensate ranchers in the northwestern area of the state for livestock lost to wolves. The state will continue with the compensation program unless the law is changed. (AP)