Wyoming Wolf Plan Questioned Speakers Don’t Want Animal Outside Park

Speakers at hearings on Wyoming’s proposed management plan for wolves outside Yellowstone National Park continue to question the wisdom of allowing the predators outside the park.

Speakers at the latest public hearing on the plans in Cody echoed statements made by others earlier this week that no wolves should be allowed outside the park.

“I’m horrified that our own state government wants to expand wolf areas,” said Karen Henry, president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau. “Originally, Wyoming said no to wolves outside of Yellowstone and we should stick to that.”

The state Game and Fish Department has prepared five options for management of the wolves, which are expected to roam outside the park in a few years as populations grow.

The department’s preferred alternative would allow wolves to roam in three “wolf recovery zones” outside the park. Wolves leaving the areas would be returned to the zones or the park.

The state’s plan must be approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has warned the state it will not accept any alternatives of keeping wolves only in Yellowstone. If the state’s plan is not adopted by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency will take over the job itself or find another management agency.

Several speakers at Cody said the state should adopt a position against allowing wolves out of the park even if it means it will give up the right to manage wolves.

“This amounts to an unfunded mandate from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and, for that reason alone, I oppose turning (wolf management) over to the state,” said Sylvia Gams, a former state representative.

Several speakers said they were concerned that allowing wolves to roam outside the park could hurt resident big game herds and livestock.

“The environmentalists are using wolves … to run ranchers out of the county and to thwart the multiple use of the lands,” said Arlene Hanson of the No-Wolves Option Committee.

But Dan White of Cody said the idea of keeping wolves in the park is unrealistic and said he supports the state’s management plan.

“It … gives control of wolves to the state, and state control is much better than federal control,” he said.