County backs wolf decision
By MIKE STARK
Gazette Wyoming Bureau
CODY, Wyo. – Park County commissioners, siding with a recent Wyoming Game
and Fish Commission decision, said Tuesday that some wolves in the state
should be classified as predators to make sure they don’t spread across
Wyoming.
That decision by Game and Fish, though, could derail plans to remove
wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains from the Endangered Species List,
meaning that Wyoming, Montana and Idaho would not be allowed to manage
them.
Officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has managed the
wolves since they were reintroduced in 1995 and 1996, have recently said
they won’t support any plan to delist the wolves in the three states if
Wyoming insists on having some of them classified as predators.
Predator classification would mean that wolves outside of national parks
and specified wilderness areas could be killed any time, anywhere and by
any means.
Tim Morrison, chair of the Park County commission, said he worried that if
wolves aren’t listed as predators, they will overrun Wyoming and spill
into other states.
“We will be doing nothing but create a breeding ground for wolf packs,”
Morrison said, adding that wolves could eventually move into Nebraska,
Colorado and South Dakota. “There’s no way to stop it.”
Earlier this year, federal officials said they would probably propose
removing wolves from the Endangered Species List next year, but Wyoming,
Montana and Idaho needed to have plans in place that assure that wolf
populations in those states won’t slip back to endangered levels.
Idaho has approved its plan and Montana’s is expected to be approved in
the coming months. Wyoming is working on a draft plan.
Against advice from staff and Montana officials, the Wyoming Game and Fish
Commission last week voted to pursue “dual classification” for the wolves:
trophy status in national parks and some parts of the Shoshone and
Bridger-Teton national forests, and predator status in the rest of the
state.
Trophy animals would be subject to hunting regulations; predators could be
killed any time.
After the vote last week, the FWS said they would not propose delisting if
some wolves in Wyoming are considered predators because it wouldn’t be a
sufficient guarantee that wolf populations would remain viable.
Morrison on Tuesday said he wanted to know whether the FWS, including
director Steve Williams, who recently wrote a letter to Wyoming stating
his opposition to the predator classification, is presenting a legally
sound argument.
Meanwhile, he said he hoped other counties in Wyoming would write letters
in support of the Game and Fish Commission decision.
“We need to question this edict that they have to be a trophy game
species,” Morrison said.
Wolves are spreading quickly in Wyoming, he said, and soon they could
occupy the Bighorn Mountains and other nearby areas.
It’s time that citizens stand up and say the federal government “is
affecting our health, safety and welfare by putting a predator in the
midst of our private lands,” Morrison said.
Commissioner Tim French said he thinks the Game and Fish Commission is
doing the right thing in pursuing the dual classification. Simply relying
on hunting season for trophy animals won’t adequately stop wolves from
spreading, he said.
“It’s just a way to get them statewide,” French said.
The Game and Fish Department will hold a series of public meetings this
month to discuss the draft wolf plan, including forums Nov. 18 in Cody and
Nov. 20 in Sheridan.
Public comment on the plan will end Dec. 12. If the final version includes
classifying some wolves as predators, federal officials say they won’t do
anything to remove wolves from federal protection.
“That means wolves would stay on the list indefinitely,” said Ed Bangs,
federal wolf recovery coordinator in Helena.