Wyoming House votes to yield to feds on wolf management
By SARAH COOKE
Associated Press writer
CHEYENNE, Wyo. ý Members of the Wyoming state House voted Thursday to consider a bill that would yield to federal demands that gray wolves be protected throughout the state, but angry state senators refused.
Working to avoid a court battle over wolf management, the House voted 51-8 to consider a measure revising the state management plan to conform to federal demands.
But an identical proposal failed in the Senate 15-12, as opponents fumed at the last minute rejection of the Wyoming’s original state plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“We’ve given them the opportunity for years to come forth and tell us what they want and then here they come at the 11th hour and tell us they want us to amend our plan. ý I don’t think that’s fair,” said Republican state Sen. Delaine Roberts. He said he wants to fight for the original plan.
And Republican Rep. Mike Baker, sponsor of the House measure, said it was simply “a placeholder” while negotiations with the federal agency on alternative plans continue. He said it would be amended in the House committee that he chairs.
Endangered gray wolves, exterminated in the area decades ago, were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995 over the protests of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. All three states argued the predators would decimate cattle herds and wildlife.
Wolves have preyed on both, but they also have thrived. The federal wildlife agency is ready to declare the wolf population recovered and remove the wolf from the endangered species list ý but only if the three states agree to manage the wolves to ensure their numbers don’t nosedive again.
The agency approved management plans from Idaho and Montana. But at the last minute it rejected Wyoming’s plan and said delisting could not go forward until Wyoming revised its plan to give wolves more protection. Furious state officials said that in a year of consultations, it was the first indication from the federal agency that Wyoming’s plan would not be accepted.
The current plan would allow wolves to be shot virtually on sight except in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and adjacent wilderness areas. The wildlife agency wants any wolf killing to be regulated throughout the state and a guarantee that at least 10 breeding pairs would be protected.
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams told the Legislature on Wednesday that it would be at mid-2005 the earliest before wolves could be delisted, even if lawmakers agree this session to change the state plan.