By KELSEY DAYTON Casper Star-Tribune
CASPER, Wyo. — The only U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-sponsored public meeting in the state on a plan that could end federal protection for Wyoming wolves is scheduled for Tuesday night in Riverton.
The meeting starts with an informational session followed by a public hearing about the plan Gov. Matt Mead and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar agreed to this summer. It designates wolves as predators that could be shot on site in most areas of the state.
“We’re very supportive of the plan as it’s currently written,” said Jim Magana, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
The organization encouraged members to attend the meeting and voice support for the plan, although it won’t formally have a Stock Growers Association representative at the meeting, Magagna said. He thinks Fish and Wildlife officials will move forward with the proposal and that the meeting isn’t significant.
“We’ve obviously never been a supporter of having wolves in Wyoming,” Magana said.
The organization opposed the reintroduction of the animals, saying it would hurt wildlife, as well as livestock. When wolves lived in the area decades before, Wyoming was a different place, with fewer people, he said.
“We felt they were trying to bring a species into an area that is no longer hospitable to that species,” he said.
Daryle Murphy, conservation chairman with the Wyoming Chapter of the Sierra Club, said the meeting is important, in fact so important there should be more than one.
His organization and others requested additional meetings in Cheyenne and Jackson but haven’t heard back, he said.
Murphy said the plan is the same as the one previously rejected by Fish and Wildlife.
“We view it more as a political decision and not based on sound science,” he said.
If allowed, he thinks it will significantly hurt wolf populations that have rebounded since being reintroduced into the area in the mid-1990s.
“We view this as more as a wolf killing plan than a wolf management plan,” he said. “We have serious concerns about this plan.”
The first part of the meeting will be informal, where people can ask Fish and Wildlife service staff members questions, said Diane Katzenberger, USFWS spokeswoman. The second part of the meeting is a formal hearing, where those who register can offer testimony. During the hearing, speakers will have a limited amount of time and there won’t be interaction or dialogue with staff members, Katzenberger said.
If a person doesn’t want to testify, written comments are accepted. The 100-day public comment period for the wolf plan ends Jan. 13, she said.
The Endangered Species Act requires one public meeting or hearing, if requested, for plans lifting federal protections of an animal, Katzenberger said.
Katzenberger said Fish and Wildlife didn’t receive any requests for meetings.
“We took it upon ourselves to conduct one,” she said.
Public meetings and hearings cost several thousand dollars, which includes renting a venue and hiring a court reporter for testimony, Katzenberger said.
Riverton was selected for the meeting because of its central location.