Wyoming governor asks federal agency to accept its wolf-management law

CHEYENNE, WYO. —  Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Friday asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to accept the wolf-management law the state adopted this spring as proof of how the state would manage the animals if they were stripped of federal protections.

But Mitch King, regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, said he didn’t see much hope for the governor’s suggestion. King says he expects Wyoming to be left out of the current federal process that could remove protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho as soon as early next year.

Wyoming officials are anxious to end federal protections so the state can start killing more wolves and reducing their take of elk, moose and livestock.

Both Montana and Idaho have submitted wolf plans that the agency says are acceptable. Wyoming, however, continues to press a lawsuit challenging the 2003 federal rejection of its original management plan, which called for classifying wolves as predators that could be shot on sight in much of the state.

In his letter Friday, Freudenthal told King that the wolf-management law Wyoming enacted this spring gives a clear statement of how the state would manage the wolves. The governor said the legislation should carry more weight than a plan approved by the state game and fish department.

“I would respectfully suggest that the contingent plan adopted by the Legislature is actually a more permanent and clear statement of Wyoming’s intention than a document adopted by an administrative agency,” Freudenthal wrote.

The new Wyoming law gives the governor the authority to negotiate with U.S. officials to determine the boundaries of a permanent wolf-management area in which wolves would be managed by the state as trophy game. Outside the permanent management area, the law calls for wolves to be treated as predators that could be shot on sight. Wolves would be protected in Yellowstone National Park and adjoining wilderness areas.

The new Wyoming law specifies that it wouldn’t go into effect until the federal protections were removed from the state’s wolves.

The law also wouldn’t go into effect until the state’s pending lawsuit over its original wolf management plan was resolved.