Fremont County braces for wolf battle
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RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) – After hearing firsthand accounts of wolves being present in the Lander area, the Fremont County Commission indicated public safety is a legitimate reason for removing wolves from the county.
The board took 30 minutes of testimony Tuesday from a half-dozen Lander area residents who reported seeing the federally protected species and concerns they have for public safety.
‘My belief is that Wyoming has jurisdiction over wildlife, and police powers are reserved for the states,’ said commissioner Crosby Allen. ‘Health and safety of our cities comes under police powers, and that is the legal basis for our resolutions.’
The commission has twice passed resolutions this year and last year declaring the presence of wolves and grizzly bears to be unacceptable within the county. The resolutions also define wolves as predators.
‘A rancher’s ability to protect his livestock has been upheld in court decisions,’ Allen added. ‘That’s the legal avenue for remediation.’
But Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a former U.S. attorney for Wyoming, said he does not believe any previous court decisions would stand up to other legal arguments.
Rancher Dave Vaughan said wolves made an appearance on his ranch, four miles south of Lander, on Table Mountain two weeks ago.
Vaughan told the commissioners he thought the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was supposed to inform local residents if wolves migrated here, but he has heard nothing from the state agency.
Vaughan said wolves have ventured to within several hundred yards of his home, and he now has installed a closed circuit television system to monitor his cattle and his wife’s show horses.
Vaughan said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have unsuccessfully tried to snare a wolf near his place within the last week, and he said the federal agency will be using helicopters this week to try to locate the Table Mountain wolves.
‘They want to capture one and put a radio collar on it, to see where it goes and to determine how many wolves they have here. They don’t want them here, either,’ Vaughan said.
Fremont County Commission Chairman Doug Thompson said he is opposed to delisting the wolf as a federally protected species, ‘simply to get it delisted. Delisting at any cost will mire us into a situation like the grizzly bear. It’ll be a moving target with continually changing criteria, and they’ll never be delisted.’
Rather, Thompson said it is important that people realize a wolf ‘is a very aggressive predator’ that poses a genuine threat to people, pets and livestock in Lander.
‘Delisting at any cost just cedes our jurisdiction over wildlife, and we’ll become a hostage of the situation,’ he said. ‘I don’t have the answer, but I know we have to protect human life, personal property and livestock.’
Darlene Vaughan, who appeared at the meeting with her husband, said Lander residents need to be educated about how dangerous a wolf is.
‘I have nothing against the people who wanted wolves back in Yellowstone; they just were not educated about them. Wolves are not afraid of people, and they’ll come right up on porches to get and kill a dog. I’m afraid for the kids,’ she said, ‘and joggers who run with dogs on a leash. People need to be super careful.’