By JEREMY PELZER Casper Star-Tribune
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Almost 7,400 people submitted online public comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about a proposal to remove Wyoming wolves from the endangered-species list, according to an agency spokeswoman.
While Fish and Wildlife hasn’t yet tallied the number of responses it has received via regular mail, the response is likely to be only a fraction of the 540,000 responses it received about an earlier Wyoming wolf delisting plan in 2009.
The ending of the public comment period on Jan. 13 is the latest step toward the ratification of a long-awaited deal to move Wyoming wolves from federal to state control.
Under the current proposed agreement, negotiated last year by 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.
Flex zone
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.
Fish and Wildlife received 7,391 online public comments about the deal, according to the service’s database. While the mailed-in comments haven’t been counted yet, said Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Diane Katzenberger, the final total will likely be much smaller than what was received for the 2009 Wyoming wolf management plan, which was rejected by Fish and Wildlife. Wyoming sued to force the feds to accept the plan; a federal judge ruled last year that Fish and Wildlife wasn’t justified in rejecting the plan and sent the two sides back to the bargaining table.
While the majority of the online comments submitted for the current proposal were anonymous; the identified comments came in from a variety of groups and people throughout Wyoming and the world.
“The Gray wolf is a natural predator and does not kill for food alone. They kill to just kill,” said Cheyenne resident Earl Crawford, a self-described 68-year-old Wyoming native. “Let the state game & fish control and manage the wolf population along with the other game animals of the state. Most bureaucrats back East haven’t the foggiest idea of how life is out west.”
Mason Schenavar of Nibley, Utah, wrote that “The wolves really need to be handed over to the state so they can start managing them and get our elk, deer, and moose numbers back where they should be!”
The flip side
Others disagreed.
“People come from all over the world to Yellowstone National Park to get a chance to see Wolves in their natural environment!” said Anita Chittenden of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. “They are an incredible beautiful predator animal that deserves our respect and does not deserve to be hunted.”
A group of second-graders from Wildwood Elementary School in Chicago sent in crayon pictures of wolves along with handwritten pleas to not approve the plan.
“Dear Fish and Wildlife Service, my last name is wolf,” one letter stated. “I don’t want you to kill the wolfs. Do not shoot my babys. They won’t attck you. …Love, Ella.”
The wolf agreement will now move forward on two parallel tracks: the state level and the federal level.
On the state level, the Wyoming Legislature will consider during next month’s budget session whether to ratify the agreement. Several legislators have said the odds of passage are good so long as no major amendments are made to it.
Meanwhile, Fish and Wildlife employees will sort and read the public comments for information that could influence their decision, Katzenberger said. Fish and Wildlife experts will then make a recommendation to agency director Dan Ashe, who will then make the final decision whether to enact the agreement.
While no firm deadline is in place, Katzenberger said the goal is to have a final decision by Sept. 30, a year after the proposal was formally published in the Federal Register.
The final step would be taken by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, which would have to make a final set of regulation changes and decide on the specifics of a wolf hunting season.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials have said that if wolves are delisted by September, they would likely set up a hunting season for this fall.