Ranger offers to bring wolf expert to Elko
By RUDY HERNDON, Staff Writer
ELKO – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery manager Ed Bangs could be heading to Elko in the near future to present his agency’s perspective on the gray wolf’s status in Nevada.
Mountain City District Ranger Dan Dallas told
county commissioners that Bangs, who oversees wolf recovery efforts in the northern Rocky
Mountain states, might be able to provide the board with some insight.
Commissioners Mike Nannini and Charlie Myers welcomed the offer, but Warren Russell was dubious.
“I have a little problem with the Fish and Wildlife Service,” Russell said. “Sometimes they apply authority that they don’t have.”
“There’s no requirement that you agree with them, but it would certainly be helpful to meet with them,” Dallas said.
Dallas extended his offer to invite Bangs during an ongoing discussion on the gray wolf’s status in Elko County.
The board’s discussion follows a series of unconfirmed wolf sightings throughout the county, as well as the recent capture of a wolf from Yellowstone’s Druid Peak Pack near Salt Lake City.
Commissioners are currently working on a resolution opposing efforts to introduce wolves into Elko County. In addition, they hope to amend a portion of the county’s federal land use plan to declare the county “non-wolf habitat.”
But commissioners are approaching the matter cautiously because they want to strengthen the county’s position in the event of future legal challenges.
“We just want to put as much meat in this as we possibly can,” Nannini said.
“There’s no rush in this thing. Let’s just do it right the first time,” he added.
Commissioner Sheri Eklund-Brown said similar resolutions in several Wyoming counties were actually inhibiting the process to downlist the wolf in that state.
“They’re having to negotiate for their state management plan,” which is not an effective strategy, she said.
Myers agreed the county should take its time to develop a sound plan.
“I would think we would want to be in the position in our county, and hopefully in our state, where we don’t have that situation – where we don’t have any wolves in the state of Nevada, and where we’re being proactive in setting up a resolution and incorporating an ordinance into the master plan that says we don’t want wolves here,” Myers said.
“I think that’s the whole purpose of this discussion – to get to a point and gather the correct information so that we can make an ordinance or a resolution with enough teeth and legal stability that it will stand in court,” he added.
Nevada Wildlife Commissioner Mike Riordan said the county’s position would strengthen the state’s efforts to deal with the wolf.
“I think it’s most appropriate for Elko County to take the lead, because we are the county that has been having some (wolf) sightings,” Riordan said.
Because the agency’s recovery goals have been achieved in Idaho and Montana, Riordan said the Fish and Wildlife Service was trying to determine the wolf’s status in surrounding states, including Nevada, Utah and Oregon.
“At the moment, it’s kind of like we’re playing a little game of chess. Right now, it’s the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s move,” Riordan said.
“We’re hoping and going to encourage that Nevada not be considered habitat,” he added.
Chairman John Ellison feared that the Fish and Wildlife Service would attempt to introduce wolves to Nevada once wolves outside of designated recovery areas have been downlisted to threatened status.
“They’re going to start trying to push them off to surrounding states, and that’s what I’m worried about,” Ellison said.
For its part, the Fish and Wildlife Service says it has no intention of introducing wolves to Nevada.
According to a fact sheet on its reclassification proposal, the agency plans to delist the wolf in Nevada and California.
“Although much of this area is part of historical wolf range, loss of suitable wolf habitat and potential conflicts with people make it highly unlikely that wolf recovery in those areas would be successful,” the document says.
With the exception of Nevada and California, the agency has proposed that gray wolf populations in western states outside recovery areas in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming be downlisted from endangered to threatened. That move would allow authorized federal, state and tribal agents to kill wolves that have preyed on domestic animals.
Additional information about the agency’s proposal to reclassify and delist the gray wolf is available at: http://midwest.fws.gov/wolf/proposal/qandas.htm