On Tuesday, Jackson, who is based in Washington, D.C., denied requests from the state of Wyoming, USFWS and pro-hunting groups to change last week’s decision that reinstated federal protections for wolves in the state, according to an Associated …
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Wyoming wolves will remain under federal protections despite recent requests to return management to Wyoming, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
In response to legal challenges from conservation groups, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled last week that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) shouldn’t have accepted Wyoming’s non-binding promise to maintain at least 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation.
On Tuesday, Jackson, who is based in Washington, D.C., denied requests from the state of Wyoming, USFWS and pro-hunting groups to change last week’s decision that reinstated federal protections for wolves in the state, according to an Associated Press article.
That means no wolves can be hunted in the trophy game area in the northwest corner of the state. The season would have opened Wednesday. The ruling also prohibits taking wolves in the predator zone comprising 85 percent of Wyoming.
“I think it’s a slap in the face,” said Tim Metzler of Powell.
People who know nothing about Wyoming’s wildlife are calling the shots, he said.
“They don’t have a clue,” Metzler said.
“It’s a misinformed majority (nationwide) dictating to a well-informed minority,” said Park County Commissioner Lee Livingston, a Cody-area outfitter.
People in the East don’t understand what is happening in Wyoming and are basing their decisions on propaganda, said Ray Acker, who owns and operates Big Horn Animal Care Center in Powell.
However, Maggie Howell, director of the Wolf Conservation Center in Salem, N.Y., said she reads all reports and wolf data from Wyoming.
Wolves are a keystone species, she said, and perform needed tasks. By thinning wildlife, overgrazed plants have a chance to rebound, creating forage for other wildlife, Howell said.
In the East, predators such as eastern coyotes, which are larger than their Western relatives, still reside, Howell said. But wolves and cougars have been eliminated, so deer without as many natural predators are consuming the undergrowth, thus causing the forests to decline.
The only vegetation thriving are plants deer don’t eat, “and those are invasive (species),” Howell said.
Fish and Wildlife caved to Wyoming’s insistence on keeping the predator zone, Howell said. With the service on the cusp of delisting wolves across the United States, any concessions that were allowed Wyoming by the federal government could set a precedent for other states to bargain with.
“What happens in Wyoming can influence what happens in other states,” Howell said.
In the early 1900s when wolf eradication was the aim, hunters were pursuing wolves on private land, killing pups in dens and poisoning wolves, Livingston said. Even so, it took a long time to exterminate all the wolves, though he believes a few wolves survived. None of that has been practiced in the last two years when wolf hunting was legal in Wyoming, he said.
Other factors need to be considered, according to the pro-wolf-hunting side. Wolves reintroduced to Wyoming from Canada in the 1990s are bigger than the wolves eliminated in the state in the early 20th century.
“It’s really wreaked havoc,” Acker said.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department was doing a good job managing wolves, Livingston said.
The population is sustainable, he said. Wolves are canny. Prior to 2012, wolves could be seen from the road in places like Sunlight Basin.
Now with hunting seasons, wolves have become elusive, Acker said.
“I don’t think there is any way we could eliminate them just by hunting,” he said.
The population has remained fairly stable, said Chris Colligan, a Greater Yellowstone Coalition wildlife advocate in Jackson.
In 2007, there were 188 wolves in Wyoming outside Yellowstone. In 2013 there were 211 wolves in Wyoming outside Yellowstone, according to Fish and Wildlife figures.
Colligan said the GYC did not take part in the litigation Jackson ruled on.
State officials vowed to continue to seek control over the wolves.
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead issued a statement saying he’s disappointed by the judge’s ruling. He said his administration will consider the best way to regain state wolf management.
“Wyoming has managed wolves well above the minimum and buffer population numbers,” Mead said. “Overturning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s delisting decision on a technicality highlights Wyoming’s concerns with the Endangered Species Act.”
“We will continue to work with the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office to address relevant concerns and ensure wolf management is returned to the state,” said Game and Fish Chief Game Warden Brian Nesvik.
The wolves are the property of all Americans, not just those in Wyoming, Howell said.
“Wildlife really belongs to everybody,” she said.
Howell said she does not know why Jackson denied Wyoming’s request to not place wolves on the Endangered Species List in Wyoming.
“But we’re happy about it,” she said.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.