BY: Andrew Setterholm
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission moved the state’s wolf management plan ahead by approving the 2012 proposed hunting season at a meeting last Wednesday.
At virtually the same time, the first livestock depredation by a wolf in Sublette County’s trophy game management area (TGMA) was recorded in the Hoback Basin.
Game and Fish (G&F) large carnivore management biologist Zach Turnbull confirmed a dead calf on a Bondurant cattle ranch as a wolf kill. The kill marks the first confirmed depredation in Sublette’s TGMA in at least one year, Turnbull said.
According to G&F large carnivore biologist Ken Mills, the last confirmed wolf case reported in Hoback Basin was in the spring of 2010 when a wolf chased a horse into a fence. Mills added that although wolves have a presence in Hoback Basin, livestock depredation cases are rare.
Under the current federal wolf management plan for the listed wolves, the rancher could seek a lethal take permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). After delisting, the permit would be issued by G&F.
The hunt season approved by the commission allows for harvest of two wolves from Oct.1 through Dec. 31 in area 10, which covers the basin. The approved hunting season precedes the anticipated late 2012 delisting of Wyoming’s wolves from the FWS Endangered Species List.
The commission’s decision Wednesday included approving the hunting season, areas and quotas for wolves this fall. Twelve hunt areas are defined in the plan, 11 of which use existing elk hunting boundaries, except for the boundaries created by the wolf trophy game management area. The twelfth area is the seasonal “flex zone” at the TGMA’s south end where wolves are classified as predators only from March 1 to Oct. 15.
The hunt quota for the fall season was set at 52 wolves, aiming to reduce the population in the TGMA from 192 to 172 according to Mills.
In the state’s new management plan, accepted last summer by FWS, Wyoming G&F is committed to maintain a population of at least 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation.
“The proposed gray wolf management and hunting regulations represent a measure and scientifically sound approach to managing and hunting gray wolves which complies with the commission’s approved wolf management plan and Wyoming’s new wolf statute,” chief game warden Brian Nesvik said in a press release,
Gov. Matt Mead, in a statement from his office, said he expects the federal government to file a final delisting rule by Sept. 1. Before that can happen, the FWS will solicit public comments on its proposed delisting rule. The rule will also undergo another peer review. The previous review was approved by four of five scientists and the plan has since been amended to mitigate concerns from the fifth reviewer.
“I do believe we have a scientifically sound plan. It has been reviewed by a number of people and we have worked very hard on it. I am hopeful that we can get Congress’ approval,” Mead was quoted as saying at a press conference Wednesday.