Wyoming plans for wolf hunt
By JEFF GEARINO
Southwest Wyoming bureau
GREEN RIVER — Hunters would be able to kill up to 25 wolves in northwest Wyoming under the first-ever regulated wolf hunting season proposed in Wyoming history.
The planned Wyoming wolf hunt — which needs final Game and Fish Commission approval later this summer — allows the harvest of about 8 percent of the state’s wolf population, wildlife officials said.
Biologists said Wyoming’s wolf population is growing by about 25 percent per year and has grown to around 350 animals.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials said Friday they were confident the proposed “limited quota” wolf hunt can be conducted without threatening a recovered wolf population that now numbers around 1,500 animals in the region.
“We have no concerns about the population of wolves as a whole with this hunt,” Game and Fish public information officer Eric Keszler said in a phone interview.
“This is a very conservative start to hunting seasons for wolves in Wyoming,” he said. “Like we’ve been saying all along, we wanted to take a good, conservative approach to the start, and kind of monitor and see how everything goes … but we’re very comfortable with the hunt season structure.”
The agency’s proposed wolf hunt season divides northwest Wyoming into four hunting areas. The areas lay outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
Each of the four hunt areas would have a quota on the number of wolves that could be harvested. When the quota limit is reached, the hunting season would close.
The plan calls for 10 wolves to be shot in the Franc’s Peak area east of Jackson, and five wolves each for the Sunlight hunting area east of Yellowstone, the Gros Ventre area southeast of Jackson and the Green River area north of Pinedale.
Under the plan, hunters would be required to report wolf kills to the department within 24 hours. They would also be required to present the skull and pelt to a district game warden, wildlife biologist or regional office personnel within five days.
Keszler said the agency is proposing a $15 resident wolf license and $150 for a nonresident hunting license. The hunts are set for Oct. 1-Nov. 30, except for the Gros Ventre hunt unit, which runs Oct. 1-Nov. 15.
No population objective
Wyoming, Idaho and Montana took over management of wolves when the animals were removed from federal protection under the Endangered Species Act on March 28.
Environmental groups have criticized the decision to remove wolves from the endangered species list and have sued to have federal protection reinstated for the animals. A hearing is scheduled for May 29 in Missoula, Mont., to determine if state wolf management should be stopped.
Under Wyoming’s management plan, wolves in northwest Wyoming living outside of the parks are designated as trophy game animals, to be hunted and managed similar to the way bears and mountain lions are managed.
Wolves outside of the northwest portion of Wyoming are classified as predators and can be killed by anyone, at any time, by any means, like coyotes.
Keszler said 16 wolves have been killed legally in Wyoming since the March delisting, as they were shot outside the protected zone in northwest Wyoming.
He said the plan is to use wolf hunting seasons within the trophy game area to address places where there is chronic livestock depredation from wolves, particularly within the Green River hunting area north of Pinedale.
“During the listing period, the (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Service was going up there every year taking out (wolf) packs, and packs would move back in the next year … so it’s been a problem area,” Keszler said.
Hunting area quotas were set using a formula that looked at both the preseason wolf population and the end-of-the-year population, and the average mortality over the past few years.
“Then we figured a mortality allowance and ended up with a figure of wolves potentially available for harvest,” he said.
Idaho plan
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission on Thursday adopted wolf hunting rules based on Idaho’s plan. Unlike Wyoming’s plan, which has no population objective for wolves, the Idaho plan set a wolf population goal of 518 wolves for that state.
Keszler said Wyoming’s management plan calls for 15 breeding pairs of wolves, or 150 wolves.
“So we’ve taken a different approach (to population objectives),” he said. “By starting conservatively, kind of feeling our way through this and dealing with wolves as they come into conflict situations — but no, we don’t have a population target we’re actually shooting for.”
The 2007 count showed about 1,500 wolves in the three-state region and about 350 in Wyoming, according to Game and Fish data.
There are an estimated 188 wolves living outside of the parks in the state.
Game and Fish Wildlife Assistant Chief Bill Rudd said wolves are reproducing in Wyoming at an average annual rate of about 25 percent. “We can sustain a much higher harvest than we are proposing through hunting,” Rudd said.
The agency is accepting public comments on hunting seasons, limits and rules for the 2008 hunting season. The proposal will be forwarded the Game and Fish Commission in July for final approval.