Protecting Wolves for the Good of Wyoming

2-18-2004

It looks like the Wyoming legislature is again up to no good on their state wolf plan; and, worse, the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in Wyoming sort of looking like he will swallow an awful plan if it is dressed up a bit and perfumed to mask the smell.

In this light, a very good essay was just written by Franz Camenzind  and Tom Darin of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.

Protecting Wolves for the Good of Wyoming

By Franz J. Camenzind and Tom Darin

There are some in Wyoming who fear the wolf more than a blizzard in March – who would do almost anything to keep wolves from occupying their historic land, even going so far as to break laws to rid the state of these creatures. These attitudes spawned the recently-rejected Wyoming Wolf Management Plan. Wyoming’s plan was not written by professionals with backgrounds in wildlife biology; instead, it was concocted by elected officials representing special interests. In the end, this approach cost us an entire year in moving towards a significant achievement: declaring a victory and taking the wolf off of the endangered species list. As the state legislature convenes this week in Cheyenne to address this situation, we have the opportunity to try again. Are we going to get it right this time, or are we going to waste yet another year while threatening lawsuits and whining about our United States government?

We need to take a moment to reflect on the big picture here. The wolf has been a missing link in the greater Yellowstone area and other places of its historic range in Wyoming for decades. In just a few short years, the controversial wolf reintroduction has become one of the major success stories in the 34-year history of the Endangered Species Act. Let’s expand on this success, not completely undo it. Our national parks and forests are healthier – natural predator/prey relationships are becoming restored. There’s no doubt that wolves have had some effect on elk populations and this causes concern to a few. But let’s give sophisticated sportsmen and wildlife enthusiasts more credit than that – they know that wolves are strengthening elk herds by praying on the weak and diseased. As a result our elk populations are restoring to natural conditions and patterns.

We also must recognize the tremendous boom this success has been to our local and state economy. Visitors from around the world have come to the Lamar Valley and other places to see this magnificent canine. Indeed, when we think of the wolf as a Wyoming issue, we overlook the millions of Americans that treasure this creature and the Wyoming lands it roams. Wildlife matters in Wyoming and adding in a once-extirpated species to the mix of the grizzly bear, moose, elk, mule deer and bison that populate our wild landscape is a vital component of the $264 million spent by wildlife watchers in Wyoming each year. Not to mention the intangible: Wyoming has become that more wild of a place. We’re all together in this, or we should be, as what is good for the wolf is great for Wyoming.

O.k., back to politics. This time around Wyoming has the opportunity get it right. But first, our legislators must pass legislation that will allow the Game and Fish wildlife biologists to craft a plan based upon sound science, not on the fear of a few.

The new plan should confer statewide trophy games status on the gray wolf. We’ve already tried the “kill at any time, in any manner” approach (how Wyoming law treats predators), and that failed miserably as it would not lead to sustainable wolf numbers outside island populations in our national parks. Second, the plan should go beyond the minimum number of packs set out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and not attempt to either confine wolves to unrealistic and unsustainable low numbers or limit them to arbitrary political boundaries.

Simply stated, the new plan should acknowledge that wolves are wildlife the same as are antelope, elk, moose and deer. Like all big game, the wolf should be managed at habitat carrying capacity levels; is it wrong to suggest that wolves have some say in re-establishing themselves in the wild? Initially, wolves should be allowed to fill the habitat within the 22 million-acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Outside the boundaries of the GYE the state can institute a harvest season and require licenses, enforce strict methods of fair chase and set biologically justifiable harvest quotas. The plan should be flexible to address the reality that in some areas, people and wolves share the same living space. If wolves are proven to cause problems to livestock, wildlife biologists from Game and Fish Department would be empowered to formulate an appropriate response.

Once wolf populations have stabilized within the GYE, a harvest season can be considered within the ecosystem, but with no-harvest zones surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, the heart of Wyoming’s wolf population.

This is no fairy tale and there is no room for childlike temper tantrums any more. We need to grow up a little: no one needs to fear “the big wild wolf.” We are all lucky here in Wyoming to have the wolf back and we know it. We should welcome back the wolf to this portion of its historic range and appreciate wolves as another of Wyoming’s wonderful wildlife assets. The challenge for us is finding the will – and the leadership – to draft a new wolf plan to ensure that the wolf is here to stay.


Franz Camenzind is a Ph.D. wildlife biologist and has been observing predator-prey relationships in Wyoming for over 35 years. He is the Executive Director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance where Tom Darin serves as the Public Lands Director.

Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance
P.O. Box 2728
Jackson, WY 83001
(307) 733-9417
franz@jhalliance.org
tom@jhalliance.org

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