Park County considers lone course in wolf lawsuit
By ALLISON BATDORFF
Gazette Wyoming Bureau
CODY – Instead of joining a coalition, Park County Commissioners are leaning toward filing as a lone intervener in the lawsuit filed by the State of Wyoming against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
To best support the state’s “dual status” wolf management plan, the county should do it alone instead of with the Wolf Challenge Initiative, County Attorney Bryan Skoric told commissioners Wednesday.
The commissioners had considered three options, two of which involved various levels of jumping on board with the Wolf Challenge Initiative (WCI), a coalition of governments and special interest groups unified in their support of the state-proposed “dual status” plan to remove the wolves from Endangered and Species Act protection. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the plan in January and approved single-status (trophy game) plans in Montana and Idaho. Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank filed suit April 22, saying the state has a right also to consider the wolf a “predator” that can be shot on sight due to the animals negative effect on Wyoming residents.
Calling Park County “the wolf capital of Wyoming,” Lou Cicco announced that the local chapter of the Wyoming Sportsmen for Wildlife has joined the WCI, along with the state chapter of Wyoming Sportsmen for Wildlife, Wyoming Wool Growers Association and the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
But Skoric cautioned against this move, as the WCI’s diverse interests, governance and future legal costs might become problematic.
“You may be aligning yourself with people you don’t want to, and if you’re in the minority vote, you’ll be paying for advocacy you don’t agree with,” he said. Also, though the group requires a $5,000 membership fee, the county may end up “on the hook” for more funding in the future.
Intervening alone will be cheaper than “farming it out to someone else,” as most of the work can be done in-house, with the exception of trips to Cheyenne, Skoric said.
“After analyzing it, we’ve decided that it’s doable,” Skoric said.
By staying separate, commissioners can also tailor their complaint to take in local wolf issues, as long as it doesn’t change the legal nature of the state’s five-point argument, he said.
Commissioners will read over the state’s complaint before they decide their course of action. While Skoric said it would be advantageous to wait until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife filed their response (they have 60 days to do so), time to intervene is growing short.
A decision will be made either at 1:15 p.m. at a Tuesday special meeting, or during the regular June 1 meeting, commissioners said.
“If Park County comes out on our own, that’s a pretty powerful statement,” said Commissioner Tim French.