Park County, Wyoming commission's allegations against wolf manager Jimenez grow into gigantic conspiracy theory.

March 5, 2004, updates March 6, 9, 14th, 17th

Rarely has there been such an example of hysteria and conspiracy theory regarding wildlife.

USFWS recent apparent inadvertent trespass onto private land south of Meeteetse, Wyoming where they  successfully darted and radio collared 5 members of the Washakie Pack has grown into a story, where rather than capturing the wandering wolf pack and finally collaring them after several years of only minor success, to a story where he was illegally planting wolves on a ranch. According to a story in the Billings Gazette and elsewhere,  "An 'outraged' Park County Board of Commissioners has demanded a congressional investigation into questions about the presence of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents on the Larsen Ranch in Meeteetse last month."

They have written a letter to Wyoming's congressional delegation asking for further inquiry in the Valentine's Day incident where a ranch worker on the Larson Ranch came across Jimenez, Wes Livingston and 4 tranquilized wolves just off of a dirt road about 30 miles south of Meeteetse.

The first I heard of the incident was when I read in the USFWS weekly,  Feb. 20 th "Gray Wolf Recovery Status Report, "The NPS and FWS in Wyoming are wrapping up their routine winter wolf capture efforts in Wyoming. On the afternoon of the 13th, the Yellowstone Delta pack was located on a bison carcass in the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. One was netted and 5 darted. Hawkins & Powers and Jimenez did their usual great job and now hold the unofficial ‘record’ for fewest darts used per capture, 5 darts for 6 wolves. On the 14th, Washakie pack was located toward Thermopolis, WY far outside their traditional home range and 5 of the 7 pack members were radio-collared. On the 16th, the Greybull River pack which had no radioed members was seen during a WY G&F ungulate survey and a capture effort was successfully pulled together resulting in 3 of 7 packs members being collared [emphasis mine]."

The allegations of trespass, which quickly grew into "planting wolves" began when the Cody Enterprise reported "Rancher: Wolf agent 'trespassed' " on Feb. 26.

The controversy over a highly successful routine operation quickly escalated. The USFWS told me they could not give me any direct information due to the legal matter, but as explained in numerous stories, a normal wolf tracking flight spotted the missing pack in open country far east of its usual range. Jimenez and his crew seized the opportunity to collar the hard to capture pack. They got a helicopter and were at it the same day. The Washakie Pack's home range is very forested and many efforts to collar them have failed. There was just one functioning collar left in the pack).

The wolves were darted in rolling and rough territory where a helicopter could not land. They collected them and flown to the nearest flat spot to collar them and collect biological data. That was the LU Ranch road. Jimenez and crew moved the wolves off the road, down a bank, while the helicopter flew off for more fuel. They didn't know that off the road was private land. The area is mostly public BLM and state land.

Then ranch worker Randy Kruger came along, found Jimenez and according to Jimenez had a pleasant conversation and didn't say anything about trespass. Kruger took a photo of Jimenez and the wolves. The helicopter returned, and the wolves were released (not clear to me if on site or flown to another location), but recent tracking shows them well back in the mountains.

My guess is Kruger told the story in town, and other folks then made up the idea that the wolves were planted.

On its face the planting theory makes no sense. There is no motive for it. If the government was for some strange reason illegally planting wolves, they would be very careful to land in one of the many places in this little inhabited country where they would not be seen. The wolves would not be drugged. They would be in wolf kennels, fully alert, and quickly pushed out the door.

Ed Bangs did tell me that trespass is illegal and that Jimenez may be responsible. Usually such a minor incursion onto private land would be ignored unless the trespassers were hunting without permission or damaging property.

This story is not really about planting wolves, it is about rural hysteria fanned by either ignorant or malicious politicians perhaps seeking payback for federal rejection of Wyoming's wolf plan.

Update 3-6. For those folks who still think this was an attempt to "plant" wolves south of Meeteetse, it obviously failed.  The USFWS just reported "The Washakie pack that had 5 pack members captured and radio-collared on Feb. 14th near Meeteetse, WY, was located by aerial telemetry on the 4th. They were all back in their normal home range in the Dunoir Valley, just north of Dubois, WY. The ranch manager in the valley that is the center of their normal territory reported he also saw 7 tracks walking in fresh snow right down the road that morning. The ranch has had depredations in the past and having 6 radios [5 fresh and one old] in the group should be of help to him should there be depredations this summer. Cattle normally return to the ranch in May. He has a receiver and was provided the new frequencies."

Update 3-9. Wyoming's US Senator Enzi seeks inquiry into wolf incident. Associated Press. This story tells us something about important about Wyoming politics. How many of us would have a U.S. Senator intervene on such a trivial matter or even a matter of life or death?  This is typical of the rural West. Individual ranchers get special attention, The 99.9% of the Westerners who are not ranchers don't anything unless they are a big campaign contributor.

Enzi's new release. Notice how uncritically he accepts the wolf planting story. This guy is making decisions about the economy, war and peace? Email the honorable senator.

And now controversial rancher Frank Robbins jumps in.  I should add the Robbins ranch is in some of the wildest country in Wyoming, just the place one would expect large carnivores.  It is part of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem and contiguous to the traditional range of the Washakie Pack. Robbins has also been a controversial figure. Do a Google search on him "Frank Robbins" Wyoming.

Here is the latest newspaper story from Cody. "Crowd protests wolf policy." By Carole Cloudwalker. Cody Enterprise.

Update 3-14-2004. Senator Enzi requests wolf inquiries. By Buzzy Hassrick. Cody Enterprise. Senator Enzi is continuing to ratchet up the conflict about this non-event. Meanwhile the Cody Enterprise ran an editorial condemning the county commissioners and and wolf planting conspiracy theorists for their excess.

Update 3-17-2004. Regional USFWS director apologizes to Larsen. By Buzzy Hassrick. Cody Enterprise. This should end the controversy, though I wouldn't be suprised if the "wolf planting, trespass" story is just too good a political rumor to give up.