Wyoming governor rips feds’ wolf plan

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Gov. Dave Freudenthal says Wyoming can’t agree to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal for managing wolves in the state unless the federal agency gives the state a better way to stop wolves from savaging elk herds over the next several years.

Freudenthal said Friday he’s reviewed a proposal that the federal agency submitted this week detailing the agency’s plan to create a permanent wolf management area in northwestern Wyoming.

If the state accepts the federal proposal, there likely would be a period of several years between the time the federal government takes formal action to remove wolves from protection under the Federal Endangered Species Act and the time when litigation over that action is completed.

Mitch King, regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, told Freudenthal’s office this week his agency expects that landowners and the federal wildlife managers would continue to address wolves that prey on livestock while litigation is pending.

However, Freudenthal said he’s not prepared to preside over destruction of the state’s elk herds while lawsuits drag on.

“If they retain the view that, no matter what we do, they’re not going to let us manage wolves for wildlife until after all the litigation around delisting is done, it’s just not going to happen,” he said. “That’s kind of a death knell for some of the elk herds. Essentially that could be 2011 or 2012 by the time you get through with all that.”

“Frankly, if that remains their position, this thing isn’t going anywhere,” Freudenthal said of the federal proposal. “So we continue to negotiate with them, talk to them.”

Wyoming sued the federal government last year over its rejection in 2004 of the state’s original wolf management plan, which would allow state game managers to control wolf hunting in much of the state.

The dispute over wolf management in Wyoming has delayed removing the animals from the federal list of endangered species here and also in Montana and Idaho.

With two weeks of the eight-week state legislative session already finished and no agreement in sight, Freudenthal says he’s concerned time is running out for the Legislature to act on a wolf management plan.

The federal proposal calls for a permanent management area to extend from Cody south to Meeteetse, around the western edge of the Wind River Reservation down to Pinedale, west to the Alpine area and north to Yellowstone National Park.

Under the proposal, the state would manage wolves inside the permanent area as trophy game that could be hunted with a permit. Except for wolves within Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and nearby wilderness areas, wolves outside the area would be classified as predators that could be shot on sight.