Wolf plan miffs politicians
By MIKE STARK
Gazette Wyoming Bureau
CODY, Wyo. – Wyoming Game and Fish officials are poised to vote next week
on a plan for managing wolves that doesn’t seem to make anyone happy.
The Park County Board of Commissioners added themselves to that list
Friday.
“I’d say I’m opposed to the plan. They’re not following the spirit of the
statute,” Tim Morrison, the commission s chair, said in a special meeting
Friday afternoon.
Among other things, the commissioners are concerned that language in the
plan – which was drawn up by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department –
doesn’t match up with a wolf-management blueprint approved by the
Legislature earlier this year.
Chief among those differences, Morrison said, is that lawmakers agreed to
seven packs in Wyoming “primarily outside” the national parks in the
northwest corner of the state. The proposed plan agrees to 15 packs
statewide, including those already in the national parks.
“That’s a completely different interpretation,” Morrison said.
Commissioners were also concerned about a provision in the plan that would
expand the area where wolves would be classified as trophy game – as
opposed to predators when they can be killed any time – if the number of
packs in the state drops below seven.
Morrison said he was disturbed that the expanded area would come close to
places like Cody and Meeteetse and appears to include private land.
“For private land to be included in that is ludicrous,” Morrison said, and
then suggested that wolves be classified as trophy game only on national
forest land or, more tightly, in specified wilderness areas within the
forests.
Finally, commissioners were dismayed that the only comments being accepted
on the plan will be oral comments during a Game and Fish Commission
meeting in Sheridan next week. Often, government agencies allow for
written comments.
“I can’t imagine why it would be just oral comment,” Commissioner Marie
Fontaine said.
Wyoming’s wolf plan is a key prerequisite before the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service agrees to remove wolves in the northern Rockies from the
endangered species list. The plan, along with similar ones from Montana
and Idaho, must guarantee a sustainable wolf population once management is
passed along to the states.
Idaho’s plan already is complete and Montana’s is nearly finished. But all
eyes have been on Wyoming recently because its proposal has brought more
controversy.
This year, the legislature said the state would meet its obligation to
keep 15 packs by counting at least eight packs in Yellowstone and Grand
Teton national parks and seven packs outside of the parks.
The wolves that roam designated wilderness areas adjacent to the parks
would be classified as trophy game and subject to regulated hunting. The
remaining wolves would be classified as predators and subject to
unregulated killing unless the number of packs dips below seven. Then
state officials could expand the trophy game area.
Details
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission will meet in Sheridan Monday and
Tuesday at the Best Western Sheridan Center.
The commission will discuss its wolf-management plan at 10:15 a.m. Public
comments on the plan will be accepted from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m.
The plan produced by the Game and Fish Department has drawn criticism from
conservation groups who say the plan doesn’t provide adequate protections
for a sustainable wolf population. Ranchers also have opposed the plan,
saying it strays too far from the original intent of the legislature.
Federal officials have listed their own concerns, including that the plan
doesn’t seem to jibe precisely with the state law and that “dual
classification” – listing some wolves as trophy game and others as
predatory animals – could be damaging or fatal in getting the plan
approved.
If the plan is approved by the Game and Fish Commission on Friday, it will
be forwarded to the Fish and Wildlife Service for a full review.