Wyoming to spend wolf funds
Associated Press
CHEYENNE (AP) – The state Game and Fish Department will start spending
$203,000 in federal money this year to help Wyoming prepare to assume
management of gray wolves even as the state fights the federal government
over the issue in court.
Some of the money from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be used to
increase monitoring of big game species such as elk, deer, moose and
antelope that are food sources for wolves.
“We’ll beef up our ungulate monitoring right away … and use some of the
dollars to prepare our people to take over management of the wolf,” said
John Emmerich, assistant chief of the Game and Fish’s wildlife division.
Emmerich said the federal money is a one-time appropriation that must be
spent by September 2007.
The federal money will also be used to purchase equipment and for employee
training.
Currently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages wolf populations in
Wyoming, Idaho and Montana under the Endangered Species Act.
The three states must submit acceptable plans for taking over management
of wolves before the federal agency will propose removing them from the
endangered species list.
The agency has accepted the Idaho and Montana plans but has rejected
Wyoming’s plan. Wyoming is suing the federal government over that
rejection.
A coalition of 27 Wyoming agricultural, sportsmen and predator control
groups announced in early July their intent to sue over the federal wolf
recovery program as well.
Federal officials began reintroducing wolves in 1995 and their populations
have since become well established in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.