Feds block wolf plan
Fish and Wildlife Service nixes state proposal to classify wolves as
predators.
By Rebecca Huntington
Wolves will remain shielded by the Endangered Species Act until Wyoming
fixes a state plan and law to provide more protection, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service said Tuesday.
Wyoming must change its classification of wolves as predators, Fish and
Wildlife Director Steve Williams wrote in a letter to the Wyoming Game
and Fish Department and released Tuesday.
Wolf advocates greeted the news with howls of approval. Wolf opponents
and Wyoming’s political leaders, however, called the decision
“disappointing” and “politically motivated.”
While Wyoming’s plan failed to pass muster, Williams approved wolf plans
written by Idaho and Montana. The service is “confident” the Idaho and
Montana plans “are adequate to maintain their share of the tri-state
wolf population,” Williams wrote.
But removing federal protection in all three states cannot move forward
until Wyoming changes its plan, he wrote. The tri-state wolf population
is a distinct segment that must be managed as a single unit, he wrote.
Williams took issue with Wyoming’s plan to classify wolves as predators
everywhere except wilderness areas next to Yellowstone and Grand Teton
national parks, the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway and
National Elk Refuge.
“The ‘predatory animal’ status for wolves must be changed,” Williams
wrote. Otherwise, predator status would lead to unregulated killing and
inadequate population monitoring, he wrote.
Although wolves would receive full protection inside the two national
parks and parkway and be classified as trophy game in designated
wilderness areas, Williams found those boundaries insufficient. (Trophy
game status gives Wyoming Game and Fish authority to manage wolves like
other wildlife, such as mountain lions and black bears, through
regulated hunting.)
The Endangered Species Act requires Fish and Wildlife to ensure adequate
protections are in place to maintain a recovered population before
pursuing delisting and turning over management authority to states, he
wrote. Predator status and trophy game boundaries, as proposed in the
Wyoming plan, would not provide “sufficient management controls” to
assure wolves would not become endangered in the future, he wrote. He
recommended Wyoming classify wolves as trophy game statewide.
While Game and Fish has authority to manage trophy game animals, state
law does not give the agency authority to manage “predators,” said Ed
Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Predatory status precludes professional management of wolves by Game and
Fish, Bangs said Tuesday. “Our mandate is to be assured there is going
to be professional management to maintain a recovered population.”
Wyoming also must clarify state law to guarantee a minimum of 15 wolf
packs in the state and to define wolf packs as at least six wolves
traveling together in winter, Williams wrote.
Williams’ decision pleased conservation groups, who have attacked
Wyoming’s proposal to give wolves dual classification as predators and
trophy game.
“I think they see the weakness of having this dual status,” said Franz
Camenzind, of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. “I think it’s very
appropriate that they ask the state to address this and eliminate it.”
Even under trophy game status, wolves may be legally killed, he said.
But Camenzind said trophy game status likely would eliminate the
possibility of shooting wolves from airplanes.
“Under predator status, it can be shoot by any means, including from
aircraft,” he said. “I think that would have been a black eye for the
state.”
Moreover, the Predator Conservation Alliance’s David Gaillard said
Wyoming’s trophy game boundaries excluded 90 percent of the territory
now occupied by wolf packs outside the national parks.
“What we seek is just some basic provisions that Game and Fish has the
authority and resources to manage wolves in Wyoming wherever they
occur,” he said. A statewide trophy game classification would help meet
that goal, he said.
Wolf opponents, however, have vowed to fight the proposed changes.
“We’re going to oppose any changes in the Wyoming state Legislature,”
said Marvin Applequist, executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm
Bureau Federation, which opposed wolf reintroduction.
Although fighting those changes could delay delisting, Applequist said
he’s not sure ranchers and hunters would be well served by delisting
under the terms Williams outlined.
“We don’t feel that the agriculture community will have the protection,
and we don’t feel that the sportsmen’s community is going to have the
protection, either, if the feds are going to dictate the terms of the
plan,” he said.
Applequist criticized the service for ignoring the will of Wyoming’s
Legislature and recommendations by 11 independent experts, who reviewed
Wyoming’s wolf plan. The majority of experts concluded dual status would
not be a hurdle to wolf recovery.
Wyoming political leaders also blasted the Fish and Wildlife Service
decision.
“Given the fact that scientific reviews of the state’s plan largely
endorsed its biological soundness, I can only conclude that the federal
decision was based on little more than Potomac politics,” Gov. Dave
Freudenthal said Tuesday.
Since the decision came from the federal government, Freudenthal said he
would rely on Wyoming’s congressional delegation for help in resolving
the matter.
“We are looking to our federal representatives for what leadership and
aid they can provide,” Freudenthal said. “We will work with them and the
Wyoming Legislature to arrive at the state response.”
Wyoming’s congressional delegation roundly criticized the decision but
said they would still work toward delisting.
“I had hoped for something more from the Fish and Wildlife Service, but
I am not giving up hope,” said U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. “We can still
come to a decision that will allow the agency to delist the wolf while
also protecting Wyoming’s interests.”
Enzi and others criticized the Fish and Wildlife Service for not being
more straightforward with the state during last year’s legislative
session, when the state wolf law was passed, about what would be
required to delist wolves.
U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., said he spoke several times with
Interior Secretary Gale Norton about delisting requirements and made
sure the Fish and Wildlife Service received funding to gather more data
on the species.
“The state worked hard to come up with its delisting proposal, and I was
given indications that the state’s plan would be adequate,” Thomas said.
“Even though this decision is disappointing, my focus remains on
delisting the wolf.”
Once wolves are delisted, the federal government turns over management
to the three states. Williams indicated in his letter that some
authority could be tranferred to states prior to delisting if Wyoming
and the service can work out their differences.