Wyoming Waiting on Congress, Fish and Wildlife Service to Allow State-Managed Wolf Hunting
OutdoorHub Reporters 05.01.12
With the successful reemergence and subsequent de-listing of the wolf in numerous states, game and natural resources departments are considering allowing hunting of the once-endangered predator. Wyoming is the latest state considering a wolf hunting season, even though the wolf has not been officially federally de-listed in the state.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted on April 25 to allow hunters to harvest up to 52 wolves in the state beginning this fall. But whether this will actually be enforced depends on a decision from U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wyoming Governor Matt Mead has reached several deals about this before, but he hopes that his latest agreement with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will be approved in time for the fall hunting season.
The state has made little headway in gaining control over managing its own wolf population despite said deals, agreements that were revoked and even lawsuits against the federal government. Since the wolf was reintroduced to Yellowstone in the mid-1990s, some ranchers, farmers and hunters in Wyoming feel that the population has grown unacceptably high.
Wyoming would be required to maintain at least 10 breeding pairs of wolves and at least 100 individual animals outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation under the latest agreement. There are currently about 270 wolves in Wyoming outside of Yellowstone, according to wildlife managers. The hunting season would begin in October and last until 52 wolves were killed or until the end of the year. Some people think the limit of wolves is not enough. Gov. Mead said he has heard criticism that 52 wolves a year is too low, but he holds firm that this is appropriate.
“This was a complex deal that we reached and we don’t want to break the deal,” Mead said in an interview with the Associated Press. “And we don’t want to get down to that bare minimum, where disease, or an accident out on the freeway where five wolves are wiped out, and we go below those minimums.” Mead would also like some degree of Congressional approval of the state’s decision – earlier last year, such protection was given to Montana and Idaho.
Wyoming’s plan would allow trophy hunting for wolves in a flexible zone around Yellowstone, where Gov. Mead said 90 percent of Wyoming’s wolves live. Wolves in the rest of the state could still be shot on sight year-round if they are identified as predators who endanger livestock or humans.
Environmentalist groups will be watching the state of Wyoming with their lawyers standing by. If an agreement with Congress is reached, many argue that environmentalists will not have a legal case against the state.
