By BEN NEARY, Associated Press
Monday, May 20, 2013
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. (AP) — The state of Wyoming is asking a federal judge not to allow
a coalition of environmental groups to pull the plug on a lawsuit they
filed challenging last year's decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to turn over management of wolves to the state.
Environmental groups last week filed papers to dismiss their lawsuit pending in federal court in Cheyenne. The groups originally filed the lawsuit in Colorado and had opposed a request from Fish and Wildlife Service and the state to transfer the case to Cheyenne.
Dismissing the Cheyenne lawsuit would leave a similar challenge filed by a different coalition of groups pending in federal court in Washington, D.C. The federal judge handling that case recently rejected a request from Fish and Wildlife and the state to transfer it to federal court in Cheyenne.
The Wyoming Attorney General's Office on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne not to allow the environmental groups to drop their lawsuit in his court. The state accuses the groups of forum shopping, saying they don't want to go to trial in Wyoming.
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead put out a statement on Monday opposing the prospect of allowing the groups to dismiss their case.
"This is a matter of considerable local interest and I believe that the suit should be heard here, closest to the Wyoming citizens," Mead said. "Sometimes the party that files a lawsuit must finish what they started. This is one of those times."
Colorado lawyer Jay Tutchton represents WildEarth Guardians and other environmental groups that filed the lawsuit pending in Johnson's court. He said Friday the groups decided it wasn't an efficient use of anyone's resources to have two lawsuits over the same thing going on in two different places.
Both lawsuits generally claim that the state's wolf management plan doesn't provide adequate protection for the animals.
Tutchton said his clients still believed in the merits of their case, and their action stood as a vote of confidence in the lawyers pressing the parallel case in Washington, D.C.
Lawyer Jay Jerde of the Wyoming Attorney General's Office wrote the state's response, filed Monday. He said that WildEarth Guardians and the other groups knew that the similar lawsuit was pending in Washington when they first filed their lawsuit in Denver. He wrote that the group apparently wasn't worried about efficiency when it filed the case, but is moving now to dismiss the lawsuit because the group doesn't want the case heard in Wyoming.
Wyoming took over wolf management from the federal government last October. The management plan classifies wolves as unprotected predators that can be shot on sight in most of Wyoming while regulated hunts are held elsewhere.
State officials say there were about 300 wolves in Wyoming outside of Yellowstone National Park when the state took over. The Wyoming game department has reported that hunters killed 68 wolves in the state from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 last year. Of those, 42 were killed in the trophy hunting zone bordering Yellowstone, while 26 were killed as unprotected predators elsewhere.
State officials say they intend to reduce trophy hunting of wolves this year to keep the population from dropping so low that federal protections could be reinstated.
source
Environmental groups last week filed papers to dismiss their lawsuit pending in federal court in Cheyenne. The groups originally filed the lawsuit in Colorado and had opposed a request from Fish and Wildlife Service and the state to transfer the case to Cheyenne.
Dismissing the Cheyenne lawsuit would leave a similar challenge filed by a different coalition of groups pending in federal court in Washington, D.C. The federal judge handling that case recently rejected a request from Fish and Wildlife and the state to transfer it to federal court in Cheyenne.
The Wyoming Attorney General's Office on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne not to allow the environmental groups to drop their lawsuit in his court. The state accuses the groups of forum shopping, saying they don't want to go to trial in Wyoming.
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead put out a statement on Monday opposing the prospect of allowing the groups to dismiss their case.
"This is a matter of considerable local interest and I believe that the suit should be heard here, closest to the Wyoming citizens," Mead said. "Sometimes the party that files a lawsuit must finish what they started. This is one of those times."
Colorado lawyer Jay Tutchton represents WildEarth Guardians and other environmental groups that filed the lawsuit pending in Johnson's court. He said Friday the groups decided it wasn't an efficient use of anyone's resources to have two lawsuits over the same thing going on in two different places.
Both lawsuits generally claim that the state's wolf management plan doesn't provide adequate protection for the animals.
Tutchton said his clients still believed in the merits of their case, and their action stood as a vote of confidence in the lawyers pressing the parallel case in Washington, D.C.
Lawyer Jay Jerde of the Wyoming Attorney General's Office wrote the state's response, filed Monday. He said that WildEarth Guardians and the other groups knew that the similar lawsuit was pending in Washington when they first filed their lawsuit in Denver. He wrote that the group apparently wasn't worried about efficiency when it filed the case, but is moving now to dismiss the lawsuit because the group doesn't want the case heard in Wyoming.
Wyoming took over wolf management from the federal government last October. The management plan classifies wolves as unprotected predators that can be shot on sight in most of Wyoming while regulated hunts are held elsewhere.
State officials say there were about 300 wolves in Wyoming outside of Yellowstone National Park when the state took over. The Wyoming game department has reported that hunters killed 68 wolves in the state from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 last year. Of those, 42 were killed in the trophy hunting zone bordering Yellowstone, while 26 were killed as unprotected predators elsewhere.
State officials say they intend to reduce trophy hunting of wolves this year to keep the population from dropping so low that federal protections could be reinstated.
source
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