Trophy wolf boundary shrinks
By TOM MORTON Star-Tribune capital bureau
CHEYENNE — A House committee Tuesday reduced the area where wolves
could roam before being targeted as predators, and gave the Wyoming Game
and Fish Department more flexibility to manage them elsewhere in the
state.
But Tom Thorne, acting director of the G&F department, told the House
Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee that his
department hopes to have more leeway in setting boundaries to determine
the rules for hunting wolves.
The committee adopted and rejected several amendments to House Bill 229 ,
which sets up a “dual classification” wolf management program when the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delists the animal from the Endangered
Species Act.
The dual system would allow wolves to be hunted at will as predators in
some areas and hunted on a limited basis as trophy animals in other areas.
Jason Marsden of Wyoming Conservation Voters said he thinks the Fish and
Wildlife Service may be less inclined to delist the wolf because the
amendments don’t offer as much protection for it.
Chairman Rep. Mike Baker, R-Thermopolis, said after the meeting that the
committee sent the bill, with the adopted amendments and other notes to
the Legislative Service Office for rewriting and another presentation.
He wants the committee to vote on the bill by Thursday morning, because
Friday is the last day for bills to be reported out of committee in the
house of origin.
The bill originally set up the “dual classification” with the wolf as a
trophy game animal in the area bordering Yellowstone and Grand Teton
national parks, the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Highway, and federally
designated wilderness areas in the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton national
forests.
Outside those areas, the wolf would be considered a predator and could be
killed at any time for any reason.
But the committee adopted an amendment that eliminated areas including the
Bridger-Teton National Forest, Fitzpatrick, and Absaroka Beartooth that
would have been trophy game areas into predator areas.
Beyond that, the committee wanted the bill to allow Game and Fish
Department officials to have the flexibility to determine on their own,
without the Legislature, in which areas wolves may be shot as predators
and which as trophy animals.
Such a policy, however, could lead to pressure on the department to
concentrate on other areas of the state and abandon the northwest where
the Legislature has set the rules, Baker said. Thorne disagreed.
Thorne said the federal government is more likely to delist the wolf if
Wyoming game managers have greater latitude in setting management
restrictions
Thorne agreed with committee member Rep. Mick Powers, R-Lyman, that the
more flexible management plan will require more wolf monitoring and more
money.
“If that’s what it takes to get the wolves delisted, we should take it,”
Thorne said.
If Wyoming, Montana and Idaho can work together, they should be able to
persuade Congress to appropriate more funding, he said.
While Baker wanted a strong bill to deal with wolves, he rejected a
agriculture-oriented amendment that would have directed the attorney
general to sue the federal government if the wolf was not delisted by July
30, 2004.
“This is a political statement and it doesn’t belong in the bill,” Baker
said, because lawsuits and wolf delisting should be kept separate.
Marsden thought the amendments that were adopted will cause problems,
especially the reduction in the area where the wolf would have trophy game
status.
The Fish and Wildlife Service needs the assurance that the wolf will be
protected before it removes it from the Endangered Species Act, he said.
“We stand by trophy game status statewide.”
Wyoming Conservation Voters and other environmental groups didn’t think
the area defined in the original bill was big enough, but the House
Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee cut even
that, Marsden said. Baker disagreed.
“Delisting is not based on area, it’s based on the viability of
management,” Baker said.