Wyoming ruling on wolves targeted
By JENNIFER McKEE
Gazette State Bureau
HELENA – Gov. Judy Martz will try to convince Wyoming officials to change
a contentious plan that leaders there announced last month that calls for
killing wolves in most parts of the state at any time, a top Martz aide
said Wednesday.
If Wyoming doesn’t change its stance, said Todd O’Hair, Martz’s natural
resources policy adviser, the federal government won’t take wolves off the
endangered species list and the animals will be allowed to multiply in
Montana – as well as Wyoming and Idaho – with no checks, possibly harming
Montana ranchers.
“I was dismayed Wyoming decided to go down the path they did,” O’Hair
said. “We can certainly understand the concern of the (Wyoming Game and
Fish) commission, but we’re really concerned about the long-term prospect
of an expanding population of wolves.”
The federal government was expected to begin taking wolves off the
endangered species list early next year, allowing Montana, Wyoming and
Idaho to manage the animals themselves. Since the wolves were introduced
to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, they have been managed by the
federal government as an endangered species. The federal government won’t
take the animals off the list – regardless of how many wolves are alive –
until all three states write up adequate plans for managing the animals.
“We’re all three joined at the hip,” said Chris Smith, chief of staff of
the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which asked the
governor to get involved.
In a widely criticized move, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted
4-2 in late October to treat wolves in most parts of the state as
predators, which means they can be killed by anybody, at any time and with
any means. Wolves in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, as well
as designated wilderness areas around the parks would be classified as a
trophy game species, and could be hunted, but only with controls.
O’Hair said Martz or someone from her office would be meeting with
Wyoming’s newly elected governor, Dave Freudenthal, and talk to him about
changing Wyoming’s proposed plan. She also might meet with members of the
Wyoming Game and Fish Commission and let them know what the Wyoming plan
means for Montana.
“These wolves are expanding territory,” he said. “They’re expanding
rapidly.”
The Wyoming plan, while it is not finalized, is something the federal
government could not agree to, said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator
for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Helena.
“Poisoning wolf puppies right outside of a national park?” Bangs said.
“You can’t keep a straight face and defend that. It would never pass peer
review.”
Bangs estimates there are between 600 and 700 wolves in the three states,
enough to mean the wolves have established themselves and could be taken
off the list.
Idaho has already written its wolf plan, Bangs said, and it seems pretty
solid. Montana is in the process of writing a plan, which appears even
better than Idaho’s. Wyoming was the last state to start the process and
Bangs said the state’s latest move stalled things.
Smith said he’s concerned the Yellowstone wolf situation could mimic that
of Minnesota’s wolves. In that state, the federal government also
reintroduced wolves. The animals were supposed to come off the endangered
species list – and be managed by the state of Minnesota – when there were
1,200 wolves. But the Minnesota Legislature couldn’t agree on a wolf plan,
so the animals are still classified as endangered and face no population
controls.
“Now, there’s over 3,000 wolves in Minnesota,” he said.