After all the shouting back in April and May when Wyoming Game and Fish proposed an interim management plan for wolves that leave Yellowstone for other parts of Wyoming, the Game and Fish Department has recommended to the Game and Fish Commission to abandon the plan.  The Commission will make an official decision in August.

The proposal caught heat from all sides. Wolf supporters said the plan focused on the wrong standard -- the number of wolves -- instead of what wolves do -- their behavior.  Stockgrowers and their supporters remained firmly set that no wolves should be allowed outside Yellowstone National Park.

The department said the Wyoming public was so polarized that it was hard to know how to proceed. They recommended the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continue to manage the wolf until it is taken off the endangered species list in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.  My guess is that even then the national government will have to continue to manage the wolf because the ruling elites in these three states have shown no trend toward less animosity to the wolf since their reintroduction.

The commission might overrule the department, although early reports indicate that a majority on that body takes a view similar to the department.

For reference, readers may want to read by stories on this issue dated April 5, April 19, May 3, and May 13.

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© 1997 Ralph Maughan Not to be reprinted, archived, redistributed, etc., without permission. Ralph Maughan PO Box 8264 Pocatello, ID 83209 208-236-2550