Wyoming Continues to Hold up Wolf Delisting
Some Idaho legislators want to delist wolves as soon as possible.
But in order to do that, the northern Rocky area, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming all must have delisting plans approved by the federal government.
Idaho and Montana’s plans were approved; Wyoming’s plan was not and that’s holding up the entire delisting process.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department stands by its plan and said all states should start the delisting process at the same time. They want Idaho and Montana to wait.
“I think Idaho and Montana have good reason to see the delisting move forward as fast as possible because the wolf populations are doing quite well, said John Emmerich with Wyoming Game and Fish.
But Wyoming Game and Fish doesn’t think delisting processes should go forward until all three states are on the same page.
“I think it should be a collective. From a biological standpoint it’s one population of wolves and it should move forward as a tristate effort, Emmerich added.
Wolves are moving constantly from state to state.
“A wolf may be in Idaho today but it may be in Montana tomorrow or Wyoming the next day. They just don’t stand around they can cover a lot of ground particularly in our neck of the woods where we’re in the corner of the state, said Greg Losinksi, Idaho Fish and Game.
But regardless of where the wolves roam, Idaho Fish and Game wants to be able to manage the wolves within its borders.
“That would be the ultimate that we could go ahead cause again Montana and Idaho at this point where we’ve got the populations at the number that’s required and we want to go ahead and manage them if we have to wait for Wyoming because the bulls won’t wait they’ll just keep doing what wolves do and that’s multiplying, Losinksi said.
The wolf population has been on the endangered species list since 1967. Their population has been stabilizing for over 30 years now.
The legislature is expected to vote on the resolution to urge the U.S. Department of Interior to accelerate the delisting process this week.