Wyoming might be left behind in wolf delisting
BY: Kevin Bottrell
Wyoming’s wolf management plan is again coming under fire as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has informed Gov. Dave Freudenthal that they will exclude Wyoming from their plan to remove the grey wolf from the Endangered Species List.
While it was speculated that wolves might be delisted in early December after the end of the public comment period set up by the FWS, no delisting proposal has materialized. This week, Grey Wolf Recovery Coordinator Ed Bangs said the wolf delisting may take place after the first of the year.
Federal regulations require that Montana, Idaho and Wyoming each have a federally approved wolf management plan before any delisting takes place. Although no formal action has been taken to remove federal approval from Wyoming’s current wolf plan, Freudenthal’s office has said it was informed by the FWS that Wyoming would have to alter the dual classification system.
This system, which would classify wolves as trophy animals in the northwestern part of the state and as predatory animals in the rest of the state, has been at the center of the dispute over delisting from the start. In 2003, FWS rejected the plan, saying it didn’t adequately protect the minimum number of wolves. FWS then approved the plan in 2007. Earlier this year, a district court judge in Montana ordered the wolves to be relisted in part due to Wyoming’s dual classification rule, finding that FWS’s decision to approve Wyoming’s plan was arbitrary.