Wyoming petitions to remove protection for gray wolf in northern Rockies
By BOB MOEN
Associated Press Writer
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – The state of Wyoming on Wednesday asked the U.S. Interior Department to remove special federal protection of gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and allow states to control their numbers and domain.
The petition to remove the wolf from the endangered species list was signed by members of the state Game and Fish Commission and Gov. Dave Freudenthal and filed with Interior Secretary Gale Norton and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
‘There is unambiguous evidence that the species has met federal recovery goals, and the state of Wyoming has a good plan for managing wolves into perpetuity,’ Freudenthal said in a statement. ‘This petition is about the federal government recognizing those two things and relinquishing control over how wolves in Wyoming are managed.’
The Fish and Wildlife Service has 90 days to review the petition and determine whether delisting the wolf may be warranted. If it does, the federal agency will conduct a more detailed review and then issue a final decision later.
The petition is another move in an ongoing legal and bureaucratic struggle between Wyoming and the federal government over management of wolves since they were reintroduced into the northern Rockies 10 years ago.
The animals have flourished and are estimated to number more than 800 in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. However, farmers, ranchers, landowners, outfitters and state officials say the wolves are a growing threat to wildlife, livestock and domestic pets.
‘With the number of wolves and their expansion across the state, it is time to have them under state control,’ said Linda Fleming, chairwoman of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission,
The federal government has sought to allow the three states more leeway in managing the wolves in hopes of eventually removing the wolf from Endangered Species Act protection. It approved wolf-management plans offered by Montana and Idaho but rejected Wyoming’s plan because wolves could be shot with few restrictions outside the Yellowstone National Park region.
Ed Bangs, the federal wolf recovery project leader for the region, said the petition to delist the wolves in the northern Rockies was the first one filed with the agency.
He had not seen the petition but promised a ‘hard, honest fair look at it’ by the agency.
‘I’m looking forward to kind seeing what they have to say and the kind of analysis they have done,’ Bangs said.
Franz Camenzind, director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, said he doesn’t expect Wyoming’s delisting petition going anywhere unless it adopts plans similar to Montana and Idaho.
‘The ultimate fate of the wolf is really going to depend on the management plan Wyoming comes up with,’ he said.