County seeks fed wolf help
By CAROLE CLOUDWALKER
Park County never wanted wolves to be reintroduced and now wishes to have
only minimal numbers of them maintained in the state and kept exclusively
on “federal reservations.”
The commission Thursday finalized comments on the Draft Gray Wolf
Management Plan and forwarded them to the Game and Fish Department. They
met in a special session to complete their comments.
Comments concern a draft plan proposed by the Game and Fish Commission
last month.
“Although the board realizes the gray wolf may be here to stay, (neither)
we nor a majority of our constituents supported the forced reintroduction
… in our county,” the commissioners wrote.
“Many factors not evaluated in the Environmental Impact Statement process
created our opposition to forced reintroduction of the gray wolf as a
non-essential experimental species,” the commissioners said in the Dec. 12
letter.
“Our wish is the wolves be kept in the federal reservations (such as
Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks) and managed and paid for by the federal
government.”
Main points made by the commission include:
- Keeping the number of gray wolves to a minimum of 10 packs in Wyoming.
- Keeping the packs within the jurisdiction of Yellowstone and Grand
Teton parks and the National Elk Refuge.
“There is no requirement we are aware of that requires the gray wolf to be
anywhere but in those areas managed by federal authority,” they wrote.
- Allowing any wolf packs outside those areas to be managed by the Game
and Fish Department, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to continue
managing wolves in the designated federal areas. - Defining a wolf pack as five adult members, and changing proposed
“rearing criterion.” - Implementing Game and Fish’s “dual classification,” whereby wolves in
accepted areas are trophy game animals that may be shot during a hunting
season, and anywhere else are predators that can be shot. - If gray wolves are merely reclassified as a trophy game species
statewide, no more than 13 packs should be maintained at any time, and G&F
will issue annual, year-long gray wolf hunting licenses.
The commissioners spent almost two hours Thursday discussing gray wolves.
Attending the special meeting was Arlene Hanson of Wapiti, a long-time
anti-wolf activist who told the commission the original G&F proposal is a
“poor plan, obviously; they are going to redo it with comments from the
public in January.”
Commissioner Tim Morrison said the commissioners must “ask the question of
how a federal entity can take rights away from the whole state when wolves
were reintroduced to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, not Wyoming.
“It’s almost coercion,” he added. He speculated the wolf classification
“will be a tremendous discussion issue at the Legislature.”
“It’s not the responsibility of the people of Wyoming to pay for the
wolf,” Morrison said.
“We have to stay tough,” Hanson added. “Alaska has a dual designation – it
shouldn’t be that hard to meet.”
“We need to support, strongly, Game and Fish’s dual classification,”
commissioner Tim French said during the meeting.
“If we delay another 2-3 years, we’re going to have a wreck out there …
there won’t even be a pet left in the valley … and elk numbers will
decrease.”
French said he favors being able to shoot wolves as predators outside
designated areas, “so if they go trotting across the Powell Flat eating
sheep they can be shot, like a coyote.”
“If the same thing happens to the wolf (that happened to the grizzly),
we’re headed for the biggest train wreck in this country,” French added.
“Is there a compelling reason for (wolves) to be outside Yellowstone Park?
I don’t know of one,” Morrison added.