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Wyoming game commission approves state wolf plan

Wyoming game commission approves state wolf plan

By BECKY BOHRER

Associated Press Writer

SHERIDAN, Wyo. (AP) – The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission approved a plan
for
managing gray wolves, knowing that federal wildlife officials have
concerns
about whether it adequately protects wolves in the state.

The commission Tuesday also requested an immediate petition for
removing
wolves
from the Endangered Species List once Wyoming, Montana and Idaho
complete
wolf-management plans. Wolves are now managed by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife
Service.

Since first being reintroduced to the region in 1995, gray wolves
have
made a
remarkable comeback and federal wildlife officials say they are
ready
to take
steps to remove the wolves from the Endangered Species List.

Wyoming joins Idaho in fashioning a wolf management plan; Montana is
still
working on its plan.

Wyoming’s plan has raised the most concern because it would classify the
wolf as
a predator in most of the state. Predators can be killed with few
limitations.

Ed Bangs, federal wolf recovery coordinator, said he could not
comment
on
Wyoming’s final plan because he had not studied it. He noted it was
still early
in the delisting process, which includes reviews of each state plan by
the Fish
and Wildlife Service and scientists.

The bottom line is whether Wyoming and the other states will ensure
sufficient
numbers of wolves, Bangs said.

Earlier this month, Bangs wrote a letter to the state expressing
concerns that
the state law on which the wolf plan was based was consistent with
the
final
plan.

‘Wyoming’s intent needs to be consistent and crystal clear at both
the
law and
plan level,’ he wrote.

But on Tuesday, Bangs said his agency will ‘rely on Wyoming to tell us
what the
state law does or doesn’t say.’

Michael O’Donnell, legal counsel for Gov. Dave Freudenthal, testified
Tuesday
that the law ‘is satisfactory and the apparent requirements of the
Fish and
Wildlife Service are also satisfied.’

Bill Wichers, deputy director of the state Game and Fish Department,
said
Wyoming lawmakers he has spoken to were willing to look at any
proposed
changes
in state law if needed.

Only one of the seven members of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission
voted
against the plan.

‘My comfort level isn’t quite there,’ commissioner Kerry Powers
said.

Commissioners took comments throughout the morning Tuesday and most
comments
were critical of the plan. No one from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service
spoke.

State Game and Fish Department Director Brent Manning described the
plan
as a
‘middle-of-the-road’ compromise.

But ranchers and outfitters said it deviates from the state law that
outlines
wolf management.

Conservationists, meanwhile, worried about the potential
implications of
a dual
classification of gray wolves – as trophy game or predators,
depending
on the
animals’ location and numbers.

Jennifer Williams, of Big Horn, blamed the ‘huge political
influence’
of
Wyoming’s farm and ranch community for a system allowing wolves to
be
shot ‘by
anyone, anytime’ in places where they are considered predators –
outside Grand
Teton and Yellowstone national parks and the contiguous wilderness
areas.

‘Wolves are an important link in a healthy … ecosystem,’ she
said.

Maury Jones, an outfitter from Grover in western Wyoming, said wolves are
little
more than killers of the elk that he and others rely on to do
business.
‘The
wolf,’ he said, ‘is going to be the biggest wildlife disaster
Wyoming
has
ever seen.’

The Wyoming plan would maintain a minimum 15 wolf packs in the state, with
at
least seven packs outside of the parks and John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Memorial
Parkway. In wilderness contiguous with these areas, gray wolves
would
be
classified as trophy game and subject to regulated hunting.
Elsewhere,
the
wolves would be considered predators.

If seven or fewer packs are found outside the parks and parkway,
officials could
extend trophy game status beyond the wilderness areas to help wolf
numbers
recover.

Manning said officials devised the plan under an attorney general’s
interpretation of the law, which he said ‘gives us the flexibility to
make the
plan work.’

But Jones and others say the law calls for at least 15 packs
statewide.
‘If
there are 12 in the parks,’ Jones said, ‘we only need to have
three
outside.’

Rep. Mike Baker, R-Thermopolis, who helped craft the state law,
believes
the
plan conforms with it.

Baker and others acknowledged the plan is controversial. ‘But that
doesn’t mean
we can’t start here,’ he said.

Tim Stevens, issues and outreach coordinator with the Greater
Yellowstone
Coalition, said Wyoming’s plan would likely be challenged in court.

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