Feds, Wyoming agree on wolf plan
Source: Billings Gazette, by The Associated Press
May 25, 2007
Federal protection for wolves could end in early 2008
CHEYENNE - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state have reached an agreement that would allow Wyoming to be included in the process of removing wolves in the northern Rockies from protections under the Threatened and Endangered Species Act.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal announced Thursday that his office has submitted a draft wolf management plan to the federal agency. Mitch King, regional director of the FWS in Denver, said the plan appears to be complete.
King said the plan should allow Wyoming to be included with Montana and Idaho in the process of removing federal protections for wolves - possibly by early 2008.
King recently warned that Wyoming risked being left out of the process because the state hadn't submitted an acceptable management plan.
"I'm elated. I've said all along that my preference would be to delist the entire listing population segment at once," King said. "I think we can go ahead and finish the process and get the public comment in."
Thursday's announcement marks a break in a long stalemate between Wyoming and the federal government over the delisting of wolves, which were reintroduced in the Yellowstone region in the 1990s.
The federal government is requiring Montana, Idaho and Wyoming to have plans in place for managing wolves after the animals are removed from endangered species protections.
The federal agency already has accepted wolf plans submitted by Idaho and Montana. But until now, Fish and Wildlife had not indicated it would accept a plan submitted by Wyoming.
The federal government earlier rejected a Wyoming plan that called for classifying wolves as predators that could be shot on sight in much of the state. Wyoming took the federal government to court over the issue in 2004, and that lawsuit remains pending even while the state enacted a new wolf management law this spring.
While the federal agency has called upon the state in recent months to submit a specific wolf management plan, Freudenthal has said the new law should stand as the clearest statement on how the state intended to manage the animals.
On Thursday, King said his agency integrated elements of the new law with the state's 2003 wolf management plan to come up with the new management plan he presented to the state.
Freudenthal reviewed the federal proposal and wrote to King on Thursday that the federal approach is a fair representation of the state's position. Freudenthal said he's optimistic that the new plan will advance the progress of delisting Wyoming's wolves.
"I am encouraged that we have solved your demand that we submit a wolf management plan," Freudenthal said.
The agreement specifies that Wyoming would not let the wolf population in the state drop below 100 wolves. The federal government this spring released a report stating there were more than 300 wolves in the state.
The law the state enacted this spring gave Freudenthal the authority to negotiate with federal officials to determine the boundaries of a permanent wolf management area, in which the state would manage wolves as trophy game animals.
Outside the permanent management area, the new law calls for wolves to be treated as predators that could be shot on sight. Wolves would be protected in Yellowstone National Park and adjoining wilderness areas.
The proposed management plan that Freudenthal and the federal agency agreed upon calls for a larger wolf management area in northwestern Wyoming than the state originally suggested.
"I just finally had to tell the governor that from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife perspective, that boundary was the only thing that we could find acceptable," King said. The boundary the two sides agreed upon includes private lands on the eastern side of Yellowstone Park.
In his letter to King, Freudenthal states, "I remain unhappy with the boundary line but accept your representation that no other boundary is acceptable. Hopefully, this can be revisited in later years after delisting has proven successful."
Freudenthal also notes in his letter that several conditions in the state law that passed this spring must be satisfied before the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission can consider adopting the draft wolf management plan.
The new Wyoming law specifies that the law won't go into effect until the federal protections are removed for wolves in the state.
The state law also won't go into effect until the state's pending lawsuit over its original wolf management plan is resolved. Finally, the law specifies that it won't remain in effect past next February unless the federal government has given the state more control over wolves by then.
Freudenthal states in his letter to King that the preconditions "remain in effect unless modified by the Legislature."
U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said Thursday that he's pleased to see progress in removing federal protections from wolves in the state.
"We've waited a long time, too long," Enzi said. "The time to delist the wolf is now. Wolves far exceed recovery goals in all three states. There is definitely something wrong with a system where it's excruciatingly difficult to successfully delist a species when the recovery goals have been met."
Jenny Harbine, an attorney with Earthjustice in Bozeman, Mont., said Thursday that Wyoming's proposal is far from a finished deal. She said her group intends to comment that federal protections should remain in place in the state, and said her group is prepared to sue if necessary.
"We don't think that there are adequate mechanisms in place for once again preventing wolves from becoming extinct in the Northern Rockies, and certainly that's a scenario that we'll do anything to prevent," Harbine said.
