Wildlife breathes life into the wild and no species does it more potently than the wolf.

By Kirk Robinson

Just the prospect of hearing a wolf howl in the distance adds greatly to any camping experience. Even more important, the wolf is a keystone predator, necessary for the full ecological functioning and health of our precious

ecosystems. And it is a noble animal that we should protect for its own sake.
 

This is the position of the Utah Wolf Forum.
 

   Colorado recently decided to allow immigrating wolves to roam freely in that state, while Oregon has chosen to allow at least eight packs to form. Meanwhile, here in Utah a biologically and socially responsible plan was

nearing completion when a sportsmen's group vowed to make ours the state of zero tolerance for wolves.

   For approximately the past 18 months, the Utah Wolf Working Group, consisting of 13 people representing a diverse cross-section of Utah citizens in a process costing the state $100,000, has worked assiduously to write a conservation and management plan for the gray wolf - a plan intended to take effect when the species is removed from the Endangered Species List.

   As you can imagine, the process was a difficult one and nearly failed a couple of times. Fortunately, patience and good will prevailed among most participants and now the group has a draft plan to present for public comment before submitting a final draft to the Utah Wildlife Board for adoption  into law.

   Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife had representation on the Wolf Working Group. Don Peay, founder and former president of SFW, participated for a year and a half, in apparent (but grudging) good faith, as the plan gradually took shape through "consensus-minus two" voting.

   Then, finding that the plan was developing in a way he could not accept, Peay gave the WWG an ultimatum at the April meeting: Have the taxpayers compensate us for game animals killed by wolves, and allow Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit operators to freely shoot wolves on their land, or else we will work to ensure that there will be no wolves in Utah!

  (CWMU operators have a business relationship with the state whereby they take a percentage of the proceeds from high-priced hunting tags in return for managing their land to support trophy animals.) The other members of

the group united in rejecting these outrageous demands, so Peay quit the group and left the meeting.

   SFW insists that its demands be met, or that all wolves entering Utah be deported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service until the species is removed from the Endangered Species List, and thereafter classified as an unprotected species like the coyote.

   Their strategy is to so far outnumber wolf advocates at the upcoming Regional Wildlife Advisory Council   meetings, and the subsequent Wildlife Board meeting, that lawmakers will accede to their demands. Bluntly stated,

SFW is betting that wolf advocates are too complacent to bother to show up at the meetings (or won't know about them, or will be too intimidated by the hunter presence to attend them).

   And they are betting, or at least hoping, that the regional councils and Wildlife Board, with many members who owe their positions to SFW, will do the dirty work of rewriting the plan to suit SFW. This end-run attempt is an

interesting commentary on the politics of Utah wildlife law, but it will become even more interesting if it succeeds.

   Information about the upcoming RAC/WB meetings can  be obtained on the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources website: www.wildlife.utah.gov/ and at www.utahwolf.net/

 

Dr. Kirk Robinson is executive director of Western Wildlife Conservancy and alternate to the Utah Wolf Working Group for the Utah Wolf Forum.