Wolf plan upsets groups for different reasons
Associated Press
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) – The state’s evolving wolf-management plan is under
fire from both conservationists and ranchers, but for opposite reasons.
The conservation community said the latest plan does not go far enough to
guarantee survival of the species. The agriculture industry believes the
draft goes too far in protecting wolves, which sometimes prey on
livestock.
About 660 wolves now roam Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, enough for federal
wildlife officials to declare their recovery a success and move toward
removing wolves from the endangered species list in those states.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to propose delisting this year,
with the goal of having the wolves taken off the list next year.
The three states first must prove to a panel of scientists and federal
wildlife officials that gray wolves will continue thriving under their
control.
Earlier this year, the Wyoming Legislature approved a bill that classifies
wolves two ways.
The animals would be managed as trophy game in Yellowstone and Grand Teton
national parks and contiguous wilderness areas, subject to regulated
hunting although no hunting is allowed by federal law in the parks.
Wolves would be classified as predators elsewhere in the state, subject to
being shot on sight with few restrictions. That has environmentalists
cringing.
A coalition of 10 conservation groups submitted a letter containing their
comments on the plan to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, which plans
to release its final draft July 18 and begin receiving public comment.
The letter is brief, according to David Gailliard of the Bozeman-based
Predator Conservation Alliance, who helped draft the comments.
“We’re not going to tinker with the plan because it’s flawed on a
fundamental level,” he said.
Franz Camenzind, director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, said
areas where killing would be limited are too small to ensure the species’
survival.
Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers
Association, said his group is disappointed because the draft deviates too
much from the new state law.
The law gives Game and Fish authority to expand protection for wolves if
numbers fall below seven packs outside the national parks and contiguous
wilderness areas.
The plan calls for expanding protection if wolf numbers “approach” seven
packs, which Magagna said is not in keeping with the law.
Also, he said, the draft would expand protection areas beyond national
forest lands east to Cody and Meeteetse and south along the Wind River
Range to Pinedale. Those areas should not be designated trophy game areas
until the packs fall below seven, Magagna said.
He also disputed the plan’s inclusion of the Gros Ventre Wilderness in the
protected area because it is separated from Grand Teton National Park by
the National Elk Refuge and therefore is not contiguous as the law
stipulates.
While the public comment period has not yet begun, the Game and Fish
Department solicited reaction to the draft from conservationists through
the Wyoming Wildlife Federation and from ranchers through the Wyoming
Department of Agriculture.
Game and Fish Deputy Director Bill Wichers said the agency wanted the two
sides’ input but did not have time nor money for a public comment period
before the final plan is released.
“We’ve gotten a pretty good feel for the range of comments and hot-button
issues that certain segments of the public have,” he said.