Wolf complaint sent to Norton
Associated Press
CHEYENNE – As Wyoming prepares to sue over the federal government’s
rejection of the state’s plan to manage wolves, Gov. Dave Freudenthal
released a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton expressing his
frustration over the department’s apparent flip-flop.
In the letter, sent Wednesday, Freudenthal called the department’s
messages to Wyoming on wolves “contradictory.”
He cited numerous occasions when he and other state lawmakers were assured
the state’s dual classification of wolves would satisfy the federal
government’s requirements to have the wolves removed from Endangered
Species Act protection.
Wyoming, along with Idaho and Montana, must have wolf-management plans
that are approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in place before
management of the animals can be handed over to the states.
After approving the Montana and Idaho plans, the agency last month
rejected Wyoming’s plan, citing a provision that would have allowed wolves
to be shot on sight in most of the state.
Wyoming proposed a “dual classification” that would have protected wolves
in the national parks and adjacent wilderness areas of northwest Wyoming,
while elsewhere in the state they would have been classified as ordinary
predators and could be killed virtually at will.
Freudenthal told Norton he assumed the plan would be accepted after he and
state lawmakers received assurances the plan followed federal policy.
“Wyoming’s wolf statutes, and its wolf-management plan, were adopted
following the express, written endorsements of senior DOI and Service
officials,” he wrote. “The Wyoming Legislature and I relied upon those
representations in adopting the plan.”
“We are now left in the untenable position of having relied to our
detriment on an ever-changing federal policy which is not based on the
best available science.”
Freudenthal suggests in the letter the rejection of the plan may have been
based more on image than science.
“Several comments have been offered by Interior officials to the effect
‘we verbally told you (you) were warned about the word predator,’ ” he
wrote. “In fact, we were advised that the word predator was a political or
image concern. However, as a legal and scientific matter, the written
words approved the Wyoming approach.”