Wyoming Prepares to Sue Feds Over Wolf Management

Associated Press

Cheyenne – Wyoming is asking the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service to turn over all its documents related to the state’s proposed wolf management plan.

Barring an eleventh-hour agreement, the Freedom of Information Act request is a prelude to filing suit over the federal government’s rejection of the plan.

Governor Freudenthal says he’s willing to work with the federal government. But he says that unless there’s an extraordinary development, he expects the matter will end up in court.

The Fish and Wildlife Service wants Montana, Idaho and Wyoming to have acceptable plans for managing wolves before the animals are removed from Endangered Species Act protection.

After approving Montana’s and Idaho’s plans, the federal government rejected Wyoming’s plan last month. The sticking point was a provision that would have allowed wolves to be shot on sight in most of the state.

The timing of the rejection angered Freudenthal and the state lawmakers who worked on the plan. It came just a few weeks before this month’s legislative session, yet long after the plan was written during last year’s session.

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Wyoming prepares to sue feds over wolf management

By Mead Gruver
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHEYENNE, Wyo. ý Wyoming has asked the federal government to turn over all
documents related to the rejection of the state’s proposed wolf management
plan, and said a lawsuit likely will follow.

The attorney general’s office filed the Freedom of Information Act request
last week. A lawsuit will follow if the attorneys think Wyoming has a case
and if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t reach some sort of
agreement with the state, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Tuesday.

“I’m willing to talk to anybody. I’m willing to work on things,”
Freudenthal told representatives of livestock and hunting groups in his
office. “But we’re going to proceed on this course until we have an
incredibly good reason not to.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service is requiring acceptable wolf management
plans from Montana, Idaho and Wyoming before the animals are removed from
Endangered Species Act protection.

After approving the Montana and Idaho plans, however, the agency last
month rejected Wyoming’s plan, citing a provision that would have allowed
wolves to be shot on sight in most of the state.

Wyoming proposed a “dual classification” that would have protected wolves
in the national parks and adjacent wilderness areas of northwest Wyoming,
while elsewhere in the state they would have been classified as ordinary
predators and killed virtually at will.

The timing of the federal government’s rejection of the plan ý a few weeks
before this month’s legislative session, yet long after the plan was
written during last year’s session ý angered Freudenthal and the lawmakers
who worked on it.

Particularly troubling for the state has been how federal officials seemed
to accept the plan last year and how most of a dozen biologists who
reviewed the plan found it scientifically acceptable.

The state’s FOIA request asks for all “documents, notes, correspondence,
memoranda, reports, notes of conversations or meetings or other
information in any agency file” related to the agency’s review of
Wyoming’s wolf management plan.

Also requested is all paperwork related to the “legal analysis or any
legal advice” pertaining to Wyoming’s plan.

Fish and Wildlife Service officials could not be reached for comment.

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