Agency to delist animals in Idaho, Montana

Feds To Move Forward With Wolf Delistment Without Wyoming

By Brodie Farquhar, 1-29-07

	Photo courtesy USF&WS.

Top Interior Department officials declared Monday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would continue to manage the gray wolf inside Wyoming, unless the state legislature “stepped up” with a wolf management plan acceptable to Interior officials.

This nugget of news was embedded within the larger context, that the Service was removing the western Great Lakes population of gray wolves from the federal list of threatened and endangered species and proposing to remove the northern Rocky Mountain population of gray wolves from the list.

“Today, through this action, we recognize a comeback of the wolves,” Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett said in a conference call.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director H. Dale Hall explained that delisting western Great Lakes wolves (4,000) would be underway 30-days after the delisting plan was published in the Federal Register.

He said the Service was prepared to delist the Northern Rockies wolf in Montana and Idaho, based on the adequacy of those state’s wolf management plans.

All he’s waiting for, is the Wyoming Legislature and state officials to come up with a wolf management plan that is acceptable to the Service, during this legislative session.

Should that not happen, he warned, the Service will proceed with delisting the wolf in Montana and Idaho (as well as the eastern one-third of Washington and Oregon, and a small part of north-central Utah) and continue to manage the wolf in Wyoming.

The minimum recovery goal for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains is 30 breeding pairs and at least 300 wolves for three consecutive years, a goal that was attained in 2002 and has been exceeded every year since – now numbering 1,200. The Service believes that with approved state management plans in place in Montana and Idaho, threats to the wolf population will have been reduced or eliminated in those states.

Hall said the Service had amended its requirements last months, in hopes Wyoming would embrace it. Hall presented a revised Wyoming wolf management proposal to state officials last month that calls for expanding the trophy game area in northwest Wyoming—from Cody south to Meeteetse, around the western boundary of the Wind River Indian Reservation down to Pinedale, west to the Alpine area and then back north to Yellowstone National Park.

Outside that area and Yellowstone National Park, wolves would be classified as predators and could be shot on sight. Trophy game animals are managed by Game and Fish, while predators are managed by the Department of Agriculture.

The federal government in 2004 rejected the state’s original wolf plan and the state has filed a lawsuit, now pending in federal court, over the issue.
Livestock interests in Wyoming have long contended that they don’t trust Game and Fish to manage wolves and want the state’s Department of Agriculture in charge – specifically predatory animal control districts, with local boards that direct control efforts.

“I want to be clear,” said Hall. “Our central position is unchanged, and we have not waivered from our 2004 position,” which expects Wyoming to manage wolves so as to ensure the survival of 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves. Hall endorsed the concept of Wyoming managing wolves as trophy animals.

Wyoming’s plan – trophy status in wilderness areas surrounding the park and predator status everywhere else—would allow 16 out of the existing 23 packs of the wolves in the state to be killed on sight. To accomplish this goal, the state would authorize poisoning, trapping and shooting on 90 percent of the wolf’s current home range outside the national parks.

Asked what will happen to wolf numbers in Wyoming, should the federal agency continue to manage the wolf, Hall said management would continue has it has in the past – removing problem wolves as needed. However, there was no statement that federal wildlife would eliminate excess wolf packs in Wyoming – which means wolf populations could continue to grow, if there’s no deal from the Wyoming legislature.

State lawmakers are crafting two bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, to change existing wolf management laws. Key lawmakers have expressed some optimism about reaching a compromise with the federal government before the legislative session ends in early March.

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal expressed several concerns about wolf management, in the following statement:

“Regarding the Fish and Wildlife Service*s hopes to reach some agreement with Wyoming to alter our existing plan, I remain concerned
about the amount of private land that would be included in the proposed trophy game area, as well as the definition and number of wolves that
would compose a breeding pair.  The ultimate question, though, is whether or not Wyoming will be given the flexibility to manage wolves
that are causing an unacceptable impact on our elk and moose populations.

“I am delighted by the potential for progress in Montana and Idaho, although it seems to be of limited value for wildlife.  I am also
pleased that Fish and Wildlife believes the populations in Idaho, Montana and Yellowstone National Park are sufficient for delisting
without the other Wyoming packs.  This raises the interesting question of whether any packs outside Yellowstone in Wyoming are even
necessary.”

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