Groups object to wolf rule
By The Associated Press
The number of wolves killed as a result of a new federal rule could number in the dozens, state and federal officials say.
But critics contend officials in Wyoming and Idaho — spurred on by anti-wolf livestock interests — are gearing up to kill hundreds of the animals. Those critics say that could knock down the animal’s population in the region by more than half, undermining a decade-long restoration effort that has cost more than $24 million.
“There’s just no biological justification for killing that many wolves,” said Suzanne Stone with Defenders of Wildlife. “It’s politically driven.”
The rule announced Thursday was crafted to meet the demands of Wyoming lawmakers, who made it a condition of their acceptance of a federal plan to lift endangered species protection from wolves. Officials from the state said they wanted to have a way to deal with wolves if delisting is blocked in court.
The rule would empower state wildlife agents to kill packs of wolves if they can prove the animals are having a “major impact” on big game herds such as elk, deer or moose. It also would allow hunting guides and others to kill wolves caught harassing dogs or stock animals on public land.
The lead federal biologist for wolf recovery on Thursday dismissed claims of an impending slaughter as unfounded.
“There’s still going to be a lot of wolves in a lot of places,” said Ed Bangs with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Any state-sponsored wolf removal program would have to be approved by Bangs’ agency. And with big game populations generally thriving in the region, Bangs said it would be difficult for the states to prove wolves were having a major impact except in a handful of cases.
Idaho officials already have a tentative plan to kill 40 to 50 wolves in the Clearwater River drainage in the northern part of the state, an area where elk numbers are down. And in Wyoming, officials have been developing similar plans to address troubled elk herds east and south of Yellowstone National Park. Those plans are not final, but Wyoming officials have said they could involve killing as few as 30 wolves.
With wolf numbers expanding by 20 percent to 30 percent annually in recent years, Bangs said such programs would have minimal effects on the overall population. But he acknowledged that wolf numbers in some areas could be sharply reduced.
Montana officials have said they do not plan to take advantage of the new rule. Rather, they say they will wait for the animal to be removed from the endangered list and then manage its numbers largely through public hunting.
The federal government says a minimum of 300 wolves in the Northern Rockies are needed for a lasting recovery. The rule released Thursday requires even more — a minimum of 200 per state.
Yet environmentalists contend that even if wolf numbers held at current levels, that is not enough to ensure the species’ long-term survival. They say 2,000 to 5,000 wolves are needed to maintain a large enough gene pool and prevent inbreeding.