No Hackles Raised at Springville Wolf Forum
BY BRENT ISRAELSEN
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
SPRINGVILLE — Having already visited three parts of rural Utah, state wildlife officials brought their wolf presentation to the Wasatch Front on Tuesday.
More than 100 people, most of them hunters and ranchers, poured into Springville Junior High School’s auditorium to listen.
And that is all they did. None asked any questions.
Utah’s once-heated wolf debate has cooled, most likely as a result of a series of measures in the Legislature that take a moderate approach to the West’s most controversial and misunderstood predator.
Tuesday morning, a legislative committee advanced a bill that would create a fund to pay for wolf management and for livestock losses caused by wolves. The Legislature already approved a resolution directing the state to develop a wolf-management plan via the Utah Wildlife Board and its five regional advisory councils (RACs).
Anticipating that charge, the RACs this month added the wolf issue to their agendas, inviting Craig McLaughlin, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) mammals coordinator, to explain the history and current status of an animal, which ranchers and hunters eliminated from Utah more than 70 years ago.
Last fall, a wolf from Yellowstone National Park was caught near Morgan, becoming the first confirmed wolf in Utah.
The discovery created anxiety among ranchers and hunters, and hope among wolf advocates.
McLaughlin’s message to both groups was that there is plenty of time for the state to develop a wolf-management plan.
In the meantime, asked an agricultural representative of the Central Utah RAC, what should ranchers do if they spot a wolf preying on livestock?
Call the DWR, said McLaughlin. “Please don’t take the law into your own hands.”
The Northern Utah RAC will hear McLaughlin’s wolf presentation tonight in Brigham City.