By KELSEY DAYTON Star-Tribune staff writer
RIVERTON — Ranchers offered their support and conservationists questioned the science about a proposal to lift federal protections for Wyoming’s wolf population at a public hearing Tuesday night.
The only U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-sponsored Wyoming wolf hearing drew about 45 people. Approximately 10 voiced their opinions about the management plan drafted by the state and Fish and Wildlife.
The Wyoming plan would designate wolves as predators in most of the state, meaning they could be killed on sight. There would be a smaller trophy game boundary and a “flex-zone,” which would seasonally expand the trophy game boundary to allow the wolves to move to other areas to encourage genetic diversity.
Fremont County rancher Jim Hellyer said he had lost cattle to pneumonia and early term abortion brought on by the stress of having wolves in the area. He said he supported the plan.
Fremont County rancher David Vaughan told a similar story about losing livestock in part to stress from predators.
Rancher Darlene Vaughan said the plan offered “great hope” in managing the “experimental, non-essential wolves,” and that Fish and Wildlife needed to implement the plan as soon as possible.
The people of Wyoming, livestock and wildlife have been “stoic with the wolf situation but absolutely need relief,” she said.
Others questioned the plan.
Sophie Osborn, representing the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said her conservation organization supports Wyoming managing its wolf populations, but its management plan needs to be based on sound science. The general public shouldn’t be able to decide when to kill an animal after so much effort and money has gone into elevating population numbers. Instead, she said, Fish and Wildlife should retain power of managing numbers.
Osborn, a wildlife biologist, raised concerns shared by other plan opponents about the flex zone that changes seasonally. Wolves disperse throughout the year, she said. The plan limits potential gene flow between Wyoming wolves and other states’ wolves.
Daryle Murphy, representing the Wyoming chapter of the Sierra Club, said the plan was unacceptable and that unregulated killing of wolves shouldn’t be allowed. He also took issue with the flex zone. The plan is not based on sound science but political expediency, he said. He also noted the tourism dollars that wolf viewing brings to the state.
Meanwhile, a plan proponent, Don Lewis, talked about the economic influence hunting has in Wyoming, which he said has dwindled since the wolf’s reintroduction.
Fish and Wildlife is taking comments on the state’s wolf management plan until Jan. 13. It expects to issue a final decision in 2012.