Commission delays adoption of wolf plan
By JEFF GEARINO Southwest Wyoming bureau
Wyoming’s Game and Fish Commission on Tuesday delayed final adoption of the Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan during a meeting in Casper.
Commissioners had indicated for over a year they wanted to have a state wolf management plan finalized and adopted during the board’s February meeting.
But the commission decided to wait until the Legislature can change state law — to allow for a statewide dual classification of the wolf — before the department’s trophy game section begins writing the final management plan.
Game and Fish Department Acting Director Tom Thorne told commissioners the agency hopes to have a final plan drafted for the commission to consider at its April meeting.
“Given the movement of this legislation … we don’t have the time to come up with a final plan, and it’s simply not prudent to do that at this time,” Thorne said.
He said the final plan when written by department biologists will have to include the current legal status of wolves.
“By necessity, the plan will have to follow the legislation,” Thorne said. “This has to be a well-crafted document.”
Thorne said that delaying for a few months the adoption of a final wolf management plan most likely won’t delay the submission of a petition to remove federal protection of the animal under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Under the terms of the act, the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho must have U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-approved management plans in place before a petition to delist the wolf can be submitted.
“Montana is not scheduled to be done with their plan until May or June,” Thorne said. “We’re not going to be the ones holding up delisting” if the final plan is not approved until April.
The commission and department have been seeking a change in state law that would classify the gray wolf as a predator in some parts of the state, and as a trophy game animal in Yellowstone National Park and in nearby forest wilderness areas.
The department was initially hesitant about the idea, worrying that the USFWS would not accept a dual classification because it would undermine efforts to maintain wolf population recovery levels since the state could not adequately regulate wolf mortality.
But Thorne said the most recent correspondence from the USFWS indicates a dual status probably will be acceptable.
“We received the strongest statement to date recently” from USFWS directors expressing acceptance of a dual classification, he said.
Thorne reviewed with commissioners the 20-plus page state House bill drafted by the chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee, Rep. Mike Baker, R-Thermopolis.
Thorne said most importantly, the bill calls for the submission by the state of a quarterly monitoring report on wolf pack size and populations to the USFWS.
“This is an extremely important provision if we’re going to get the (USFWS) to agree to this,” he said. “Monitoring is very important to them.”
The bill calls for maintaining seven wolf packs outside of Yellowstone recovery areas and designated wilderness areas, and eight packs within Yellowstone and nearby wilderness areas. The state would not assume management of the wolf under the plan until the animal is delisted.
Thorne said if wolves drop below that threshold, the commission would be required to adopt a statewide trophy game classification for the animal that would prohibit the taking of wolves except as specified by the commission.
Thorne noted the estimated costs of implementing the state’s management plan — initially set at around $400,000 per year — keeps going up. But there’s a chance that lawmakers will appropriate additional funding once the animal is delisted, he said.
“It’s going to be expensive no doubt … but I don’t know what the final costs will be,” he said. “But after delisting, there’s a fairly good chance to get congressionally appropriated money for the three states to cover wolf management, including perhaps paying for depredation as well.”