By JEREMY PELZER Star-Tribune capital bureau
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Congressional negotiators have killed a budget rider proposed by U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., that would have prohibited lawsuits against a pending agreement to remove Wyoming wolves from the endangered species list, a Lummis spokeswoman said today.
The demise of the provision, which Lummis had tucked into an Interior Department appropriations bill, could open the door to lawsuits by environmental groups and others against the deal, reached in early August.
Under the agreement, reached by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials and Gov. Matt Mead, the state’s roughly 243 wolves living outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation could be killed on sight in all but the northwest part of the state, where they would be designated as trophy game and could only be hunted with a license.
The plan also establishes a flex zone covering northern Sublette and Lincoln counties, as well as southern Teton County, in which wolves would be protected only from Oct. 15 until the end of the following February.
Congress passed a similar no-sue clause to a must-pass budget bill in April by U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and John Tester, both Montana Democrats, that delisted wolves in five other Western states.