State and federal officials announced an agreement to reintroduce wood bison to the lower Yukon River area of Alaska by as soon as 2014.

Using parts of the Endangered Species Act, officials will classify the bison as a "nonessential experimental population," which means their protection would not interfere with oil or mineral development. In the long term, state wildlife officials plan to allow limited hunts of the animals.

The wood bison will be placed at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, south of Anchorage.

Wood bison are larger than plains bison and at one time roamed parts of northwestern Canada and interior Alaska. Adult males of the species can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. The animals, which have been classified as threatened, have been gone from the state for about a century. They vanished from the state by the late 1800s, though researchers are unsure why (Yereth Rosen, Reuters, Jan. 17). -- WW