By MARK HEINZ
The federal government was poised Friday to drop protections for wolves across the Lower 48, but that could have little effect on the status quo in Wyoming.
If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service goes ahead with dropping protection for wolves, it will probably have no effect on pending lawsuits against Wyoming’s wolf management policy, county commissioner Joe Tilden said Friday.
“I don’t think any federal decision regarding the protection of wolves will affect the lawsuits we’re involved in. Any delisting rule is sure to be challenged in the courts,” he said.
The commissioners recently agreed the county should join the Wyoming Wolf Coalition, a collection of groups seeking intervener status in wolf policy lawsuits in Cheyenne and Washington, D.C.
Delisting has already occurred in the areas inhabited by most of the wolves in the Lower 48 – Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and the Great Lakes region.
The Obama administration and FWS are considering dropping federal protection across all states – save for a small population of Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest.
Such a decision would probably bring no change in areas where wolves are already delisted and under state management.
What could change is the status of wolves in states they have colonized from the greater Yellowstone region – such as Washington and Oregon.
It could also affect the future of wolves in places where some hope they can be re-established in large numbers, such as Colorado.
FWS concluded that with a total of about 6,100 wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes regions, the predators have successfully re-established themselves in the Lower 48, and no further federal protection is needed.
Environmental groups have argued that there still are vast expanses of suitable habitat wolves should be allowed to reclaim, under federal protection.
Wyoming held its first public wolf hunts last fall. Hunters killed 42 of the statewide limit of 52 wolves in 12 hunt areas – including four hunt areas in or near Park County.
Environmental groups filed three lawsuits, two in Washington and one in Cheyenne, claiming Wyoming’s management is too heavy-handed, and wolves here should go back under federal protection.
The Wyoming Wolf Coalition gained intervener status in the Cheyenne case, and seeks it in the Washington cases, Tilden said.
No court dates have been set in any of the cases, he said, and the coalition is still waiting for word on its status in the Washington cases.
Also, the plaintiffs filed a motion to drop the Cheyenne case, but that decision is still pending, Tilden added.
“We hope that doesn’t happen, but it is a wise move on the plaintiffs’ part,” because it would get the entire issue in front of more sympathetic judges in Washington, he said.