By LEW FREEDMAN
Wyoming could authorize a wolf hunt as early as this fall now that a U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled the state’s plan for managing the former endangered species is acceptable.
“We believe it’s possible,” said Brian Nesvik, Wyoming Game and Fish wildlife division chief. “The earliest would be this coming fall.”
Nesvik made the comments Tuesday in an interview after expressing his satisfaction over Wyoming’s victory in the court case that put management of Wyoming wolves back into state hands.
“We had our hopes,” Nesvik said of the 3-0 opinion issued by the court in the District of Columbia last Friday.
“We had a very strong plan in place before this happened,” he said. “The bottom line is this is a very good step for state wolf management.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the wolves of Wyoming from Endangered Species Act protection in 2012.
Environmental groups contended that Fish and Wildife acted arbitrarily when it delisted the state’s wolves. At issue was whether Wyoming’s program could maintain a recovered wolf population. The court opinion said the plan put in place by the state was sufficient to do the job.
Game and Fish supervised wolf hunts in the state in 2012 and 2013 before the court case was filed in 2014 and put things on hold.
During those seasons nearly 100 wolves were harvested in designated trophy game areas by licensed hunters, Nesvik said.
Wolf hunting was also legal in other parts of the state. However, few wolves congregated in other areas because there is no suitable habitat, he said.
For now, until regulations establishing a hunt are approved, hunting wolves remains illegal.
Nesvik said the plaintiffs still have time to review the ruling during a follow-up period. Then a hunting season can be established.
Game and Fish spokesman Renny MacKay said the department will have to go before the Game and Fish Commission to set the season and to establish the number of tags to be issued.
The procedure for doing so will
mirror the same process as “any species that has a regulated big-game hunt.”
The reason why a wolf hunting season could be instituted so swiftly, Nesvik said, is the state’s experience from 2012 and 2013.
“We managed a hunt for two years,” he said.
MacKay echoed that thinking.
“The biggest thing is we have a track record,” he said.
The evidence from those two years of wolf hunting under state management demonstrates Wyoming had “a conservative program in place,” MacKay said.