New West News

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Initiates ‘Flex’ Plan for Wolves in Wyoming

By Brodie Farquhar, 4-13-11

Wyoming and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are exploring an idea whereby Wyoming could gain state management over wolves, retain the wolf’s dual status of trophy and predator and reduce wolf numbers outside of Yellowstone, down to 10 breeding pairs and 100 animals.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead spoke of the plan’s details during a Tuesday press conference.

“We’re trying to get out of this stalemate,” Mead said.

The key to the plan, which was originally suggested by USFWS, is what Mead called a “flex line” adjustment to the current boundary line separating trophy wolves in and immediately around Yellowstone, and the rest of the state where wolves are regarded as predators and can be shot on sight.

The flex line would extend the trophy boundary south about 90 miles from the current line near Jackson, down to Big Piney, including Sublette County and much of Star Valley in Lincoln County. But the flex line extension would last only for five months of the year, November to March.

“U.S. Fish and Wildlife tell me that that would open a winter migration route for wolves to disperse,” said Mead. This dispersal is critical to genetic exchange to and from wolf populations in Idaho and Wyoming, he explained.

Mead explained the new flex area wouldn’t have livestock scattered in the woods and vulnerable to attack by wolves. Predator status would be reimposed for the rest of the year, whereby wolves could be shot on sight.

The payoff for Wyoming, explained Mead, would be that the state could retain multilevel designation and management while reducing wolf numbers outside Yellowstone, estimated at more than 300 today.

Mead said he wanted to hear from livestock producers and get their buy-in. Any agreement reached by Wyoming and USFWS would still need to be approved by the Department of Interior and Congress, Mead added.

When asked whether the plan had the approval of any conservation groups, Mead said hunter groups like Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife (SFW) like the plan, and they consider themselves to be conservationists.

“Some conservationists like the plan,” the governor said.

SFW has long been a critic of the federal reintroduction of wolves into the northern Rockies, and has blamed declining elk herd numbers on wolf predation. SFW members and leaders have been among the most strident of anti-wolf critics over the years.

Other conservationists are dismayed by the flex line concept.

“Wyoming is trying to manage wolves like Montana manages bison – shoot ‘em,” said Mike Leahy, Rocky Mountain Director for Defenders of Wildlife. “This is a disaster for the wolves and undermines the tradition of free-roaming wildlife.”

Leahy said the concept is cruel because it will simply lure young dispersal wolves to come down to the Big Piney area, mate and have pups – all exposed to extermination for the rest of the year.

Doug Honnold, an Earthjustice attorney based in Montana, blasted the plan.

“So, basically, wolves have no place in almost 90 percent of Wyoming, but a handful of individual wolves get a chance to sprint through the gauntlet zone for a couple of months,” he said.

“Won’t do anything for creating a sustainable wolf population in Wyoming, and is unlikely to have an appreciable effect on genetic connectivity.”

Robert Hoskins, a Crowheart-based conservationist, called the flex line idea a sham. The area’s predator status for seven months out of the year would make it a mortality sink for wolves, he said. Hoskins also blasted the secrecy of wolf meetings around the state – which were first publicized last week when a Cody Enterprise reporter stumbled on a meeting and was locked out.

The Plan’s Genesis

The point man for the flex-line idea has been Steve Ferrell, former director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and now policy advisor to Mead.

Ferrell said he’s had 11 meetings around the state, talking to local politicians, legislators and especially those who are impacted by wolves – ranchers and outfitters. He said he has a meeting later this week with Wyoming conservation groups, including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Ferrell was reached for a telephone interview Tuesday night, after he had met with interest groups in Lander.

“I guess the genesis of this whole thing would start with Judge Johnson’s decision, when he told the (Fish & Wildlife) Service that their insistence that Wyoming have statewide trophy status for wolves was ‘arbitrary and capricious,’” Ferrell said.

In 2008, the service rejected the state’s duel-status plan for wolves. Last fall, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne ruled that the service was wrong and needed to return to negotiations.

“The service came to us a couple months ago,” said Ferrell, “and said that by extending the trophy boundary line south, they could get better dispersal and therefore genetic exchange between Idaho and Wyoming wolves.”

Ferrell said audiences have been cautious about the flex-line concept, wondering whether any agreement can stick between the state and the federal agency.

Ferrell said he viewed the plan as good for everyone. Wolf supporters get enhanced connectivity and a sustainable wolf population.

“It’ll help hunters. We’ll get delisting and state management of wolves, and we’ll be able to manage our ungulate herds better as well,” he said.

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