By Angus M. Thuermer Jr., Jackson Hole, Wyoming
One week before a scheduled public meeting about wolf hunting in Jackson, a Montana group says the Wyoming Game and Fish Department needs to better justify its hunting goals.
The National Wolfwatchers Coalition wrote a nine-page letter to the state wildlife agency saying the Wyoming hunt does not measure up to principles of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.
The model, constructed by hunters and adopted by various sportsmen’s groups, contains seven points that seek to govern wildlife democratically and sustainably.
The Game and Fish plan for 2013 calls for a quota of 26 wolves to be hunted and killed this fall in the trophy game zone in the northwestern part of the state, including areas around Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. It also allows for wolves in the remaining 85 percent of the state to be killed by any means at any time and without a license.
“The current wolf hunting proposals work against four of the seven principles of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation,” wrote Dave Hornoff, director of the group, which says it has members who live in Wyoming. “We ask that facts and not fear dictate wolf management in Wyoming so that our state can be proud leaders of solution-driven objectives.”
A Game and Fish spokesman in Jackson referred questions to an agency representative in Cheyenne, who did not return phone calls Monday afternoon. The department has, however, justified its wolf hunting seasons in the past and forged an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which approved its hunting plan. It has also been supported in its latest proposal by some elk hunting outfitters.
Hornoff and others who signed the letter said Wyoming’s hunting proposal does not use the best available, unbiased science, one of the seven principles. Wolfwatchers criticized the agency for justifying hunting in part because wolves eat elk. Yet the statewide elk count is “at an all-time high,” the group contends.
Wolf-hunt supporters however, including Game and Fish, point to a lower ratio of calves to mothers among elk herds in places where wolves are present.
Wolfwatchers also protests that Game and Fish runs afoul of the model’s principle that wildlife be held in the public trust.
“We assert that the plan is too aggressive and its provisions can potentially threaten wolf pack structure,” the letter reads. “As a result, this can have adverse effects on population sustainability and genetic diversity.”
Wyoming’s agreement with the federal government calls for regular reporting on genetic diversity and a minimum population of 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs outside Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Wolfwatchers contends the state also violates the democratic principle of the hunting model.
“Many Wyoming residents who make their living via ecotourism and those who prefer to spend their time as wildlife watchers are denied the opportunity to participate in the democratic process when it comes to decision-making about wolves,” the group said. Fewer than 5 percent of 305 million American citizens buy hunting licenses, Wolfwatchers said.
Finally, the group attacks the predator zone as a “frivolous use” of wildlife, violating another tenet of the North American Wildlife Model. By allowing unbridled killing across 85 percent of the state, “Wyoming Fish and Game and Wyoming hunters give themselves a black eye with those 292 million Americans who no longer hunt — the same Americans who control the public lands on which Wyoming residents hunt and fish,” the group said.
Game and Fish has scheduled a meeting on wolf seasons for 6:30 p.m. on May 28 at the Virginian Lodge. Wolfwatchers’ letter was sent in hopes of influencing the 2013 season, which is scheduled to be finalized by the appointed Wyoming Game and Fish Commission this summer.