Wyoming drafts wolf hunting regulations
By Cory Hatch
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department released draft regulations for hunting gray wolves that would allow ranchers to kill the animals for livestock conflicts, and wildlife managers to kill them for elk conflicts on state feed grounds.
The draft regulations contain no mention of a sport hunting season.
The regulations would apply only to a trophy game area in the northwest corner of the state. In the rest of the state, wolves would be considered predators and could be killed by any means without a license.
Livestock owners could acquire a lethal take permit if gray wolves have “repeatedly (twice or more) harassed, injured, maimed or killed livestock or domesticated animals,” according to the draft.
Further, the regulations would allow the state to lethally remove wolves that cause “unacceptable impacts” or wolf-elk conflicts on state-operated feed grounds.
Though not addressed in the regulations, Wyoming Game and Fish Department spokesman Eric Keszler said officials would likely set hunting seasons in the spring. “This is just like the first step,” he said. “We’ll do a series of season-setting meetings and the public will have input through that whole process.”
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission approved a wolf plan for the state Nov. 16. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally approved the plan Dec. 15. In official comments on the plan, about 75 percent of Wyoming residents, and 90 percent of total respondents, said they opposed it.
The draft regulations also outline how the state could use lethal control to kill wolves. “The Department shall utilize aggressive management techniques including, but not limited to aerial hunting and hazing to protect private property including livestock and domesticated animals within the [trophy game area],” the draft states.
Livestock owners who experience “chronic wolf predation” could acquire a permit that allows them to kill wolves until the end of the calendar year. When the permit is issued, USDA Wildlife Services and the state would also be authorized to lethally remove the animals.
If a livestock owner took a wolf, he or she would have to submit the entire carcass to a district game warden within 72 hours so Game and Fish could take hair and tissue samples, according to the draft.
Keszler said the regulations would depend upon delisting this winter. “We think it’s likely that Fish and Wildlife will issue a delisting rule,” he said. “We also think it’s likely that there will be a number of lawsuits. Where those lawsuits go is anybody’s guess.”
Conservation groups say Wyoming officials are determined to kill wolves until they reach the minimum population in the state, defined as seven breeding pairs outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
Federal officials expect to remove gray wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, in March 2008.
Last May, Governor Dave Freudenthal and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service compromised on the wolf management plan, opening the way for the state to join Idaho and Montana in removing gray wolf from Endangered Species Act protection.
In the compromise with the federal government, Freudenthal accepted a larger trophy game area in the northwest corner of the state.