State wolf plan draws critics of predator law
Wolf hunting advocates say give Gov. Mead’s plan a chance to work.
By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
August 31, 2011
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would likely accept changes to a deal with Wyoming that would prohibit indiscriminate killing of wolves throughout Teton County, a county commissioner said last week.
Teton County Commissioner Hank Phibbs made the comments Aug. 24 at a meeting on the draft Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan in Jackson.
Phibbs’ comments came after Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and Fish and Wildlife struck a deal that would allow the indiscriminate killing of wolves south of Highway 22 most of the year. The deal draws the line between a trophy game zone and a predator zone along the highway and down U.S. 191.
Wolves outside the boundary — in places such as South Park and Red Top Meadows — would be considered predators that could be killed by any means, without a license. In winter, the boundary would move south so wolves could disperse into Idaho.
“If that line were moved to the south boundary of Teton County, it would increase the legal and biological standing of the wolf management plan,” Phibbs told an audience of about 100 people gathered to give their input on the state’s wolf management plan.
Phibbs said the Wyoming Legislature must approve the revision to the plan, or there might not be another chance to change it.
“The understanding we have is that this is the one-time opportunity that we have to move [the boundary],” he said. “It is easy to amend the agreement. Since the Legislature has to act, it can draw that line anywhere they choose.”
Teton County commissioners would “strongly support” the wolf management plan “with the adjustment we are requesting,” Phibbs said. The change would have “no adverse effect to any other county in Wyoming,” he said.
Other attendees took a stronger position, saying the entire state should be a trophy game zone.
“I think the Wyoming Game and Fish has done a great job with this plan,” Jackson resident Shane Moore said. “I don’t have concerns that wolves will survive with this plan.”
However, the predator zone would allow atrocities such as burning wolves alive or wiring their mouths shut so they starve to death, Moore said.
“Predator status will legalize the torture of wolves,” he said. “The blowback nationwide is going to be tremendous. I don’t think the public is willing to legalize torture.”
Predator status doesn’t help Wyoming residents, said Trevor Stevenson, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.
“I’ve been waiting to hear what the upside is of the predator status,” he said. “It’s going to be a disaster for our tourism industry.”
Livestock producers would get to shoot wolves regardless, but under trophy status they get compensation for livestock losses, Stevenson said.
“In my view, the people who are getting the short end of the stick are the hunters,” he continued. With predator status, hunting guides wouldn’t be hired to guide wolf hunts.
Stevenson said the debate has been about “do we like wolves or do we not like wolves” for too long.
Advocates of the plan, including many outfitters, pleaded for residents to let Gov. Mead’s plan go through the Wyoming Legislature unaltered.
“I’ve been waiting a decade to get to this point,” Kelly outfitter B.J. Hill said. “Let’s give this thing a chance to work and modify it down the line as the public learns to deal with the wolf itself.”
Environmental groups have polarized the issue so much that Wyoming residents haven’t been able to decide for themselves whether wolves are a benefit or a nuisance, Hill said.
“The suing has got to stop,” he said. “I’d like to have my guides here at least have a chance to like this wolf. We should have been managing it before it got out of hand.
“The reason you can’t go trophy game statewide is because you burned the stockgrowers and you burned the sportsmen,” Hill said.
Several outfitters said wolves have hurt their businesses.
“It’s too late,” Jackson outfitter Paul Gilroy said. “I am taking no hunters this year. I can’t take a man’s money ... if he hasn’t seen an elk track in 10 days.”
When officials began the first discussions about bringing wolves back to Greater Yellowstone, Harold Turner, operator of the Triangle X Ranch, said, “It would be really kind of neat to hear a wolf howl.
“It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life, not because of the wolf, but because of our inability to manage the wolf,” Turner said.
“We’re used to seeing elk all around us. The wolves have them all pushed up into the timber. We have closed one of our camps because we have no elk.”
Environmental groups should show “some common courtesy and faith” to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said Bob Wharff, executive director of Wyoming Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife. “They are not going to allow this wolf to become extinct,” he said. “We have nothing to fear. We’re not going to wipe them out with hunters.”
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission will meet to discuss the wolf plan Sept. 14. If the commission accepts the plan, Fish and Wildlife will publish a draft delisting rule in early October.
People who wish to comment on the draft plan can write to Wolf Plan Comments, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, 5400 Bishop Blvd., Cheyenne, WY 82006. People can also submit comments by fax to 307-777-4650. Comments are due by 5 p.m. Sept. 9.
Cattle deaths lead to killing of 6 wolves
By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.
While residents debate Wyoming’s proposed wolf plan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues its program of killing wolves that chronically prey on livestock, eliminating six wolves in as many weeks.
An agent for the federal agency responsible for wolf recovery reported three wolves were killed after a cow was found dead July 17 on a public grazing allotment near Togwotee Pass.
About a month later, wolves killed three calves and yearling cow on another allotment in the Upper Green River drainage.
Three wolves were killed in the Upper Green and more may be targeted, according to a report by Mike Jimenez posted on a Fish and Wildlife website. The agency also has issued a shoot-on-sight permit to a La Barge resident after confirming six horses were injured by wolves there.
The Fish and Wildlife response is “very typical,” Jimenez said in an interview Tuesday.
“If they cause chronic problems, or even if they cause problems, we don’t allow that to happen,” he said. “We get rid of wolves.”
The killing of wolves is undertaken on a case-by case basis, he said, and involves factors including pack size, location and the number of wolves in Wyoming.
The population in the state remains robust, he said — more than 200 wolves roam Wyoming — and is growing.
About a third of wolf packs kill at least one domestic animal a year, he said. This year, 19 wolves have been killed, while they are responsible for the deaths of 20 cattle, 28 sheep and a dog. A horse also had to be put down after it broke its leg when wolves were chasing it.
By comparison, in 2008, 63 wolves were killed, and in 2003, only 19.
Wolves tend to cause more problems the further south and east they are from Yellowstone, Jimenez said. As they disperse in those directions, they find themselves in country with less dense wildlife populations and more livestock.
Reducing the size of a pack can cut down on depredations, Jimenez said. In some cases, Fish and Wildlife will keep a depredating pack intact, although at a smaller size, to prevent new packs from moving into new territory.
That strategy has been used on the east side of Yellowstone, he said.
Since 2006, the number of depredations in Wyoming has gone down steadily even as the wolf population has grown, Jimenez said.
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