Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Wolves Are Now Fair Game in 85% of Wyoming

From today's Casper Star-Tribune:

Wyoming assumed management once again of wolves within its borders on Tuesday, and those apex predators wandering outside the northwest corner of the state can be shot on sight.

The Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., entered its final order in favor of Wyoming in a lawsuit that landed wolves back on the endangered species list in 2014. The court announced in early March that it had upheld the state’s plan but had not issued its final order.

Tuesday’s decision is what Wyoming wolf managers hope is the last legal battle in a roller-coaster legal process.

“All indications are that this decision shows once again that Wyoming’s plan is a sound management plan,” said Brian Nesvik, chief of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s wildlife division. “They will remain in the hands of state management. For Wyoming this is, again, this is a time for us to celebrate. This is a good thing for Wyoming to be able to take on another wildlife resource.”

No changes were made to Wyoming’s wolf management plan from when the state oversaw the carnivores between 2012 and 2014, Nesvik said.

That means Wyoming will manage the 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Reservation.

Wolves in 85 percent of the state are considered a predator and can be shot on sight, similar to coyotes. They are classified as a trophy animal in the northwest corner of the state and subject to fall hunting seasons. Those seasons have not yet been set, Nesvik said, adding that wolves in those areas cannot be hunted right now. The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission will set those seasons after a public comment period.

A coalition of environmental groups sued Wyoming in 2012 over the state’s management plan. A representative for the group said in early March the coalition was disappointed with the D.C. court’s ruling, said Tim Preso, an attorney for Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm representing Defenders of Wildlife and several other environmental groups who filed suit against the state.

Earthjustice’s lawyers argued, essentially, that Wyoming’s plan to maintain a buffer of more wolves than the required amount was not legally binding and insufficient under the Endangered Species Act. The court ruled that Wyoming’s plan was adequate, and environmental groups did not appeal the decision.

Preliminary estimates showed Wyoming had about 240 wolves at the end of 2016, Tyler Abbott, Wyoming field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told the Star-Tribune in March.

About time! Awesome news. Let's hope it's the last time it's stopped.

Preliminary estimates of 216 wolves in Wyoming? Exactly where is this number from? Since wolves are as easy to count as bears I highly doubt anybody's numbers especially some leaf likkers

Wolf counts are iffy at best and in some cases outright lies. It's impossible to get any kind of accurate count on something that elusive and widespread.

Ask your game and fish department--they are the ones that determine the numbers now.

On the contrary, most estimates are no less or more accurate than those for any other free-ranging wildlife species. The only variable is whether the numbers meet our preconceived notions.

Wolf populations and management should be a state by state issue.

State biologists are perfectly capable of managing their populations with hunting seasons and regulations that consider everybody's agenda.

It's only when we get the USFWS and PETA involved in setting policy with no regard to science, biometrics and local economics that it gets complicated.

Bingo!

Here's some dirty secret.A Federal trapper has killed in the last three years approximately thirty five wolves on a mountain in sight of my house. The collored female is to be left alone, but her name and pups have been killed. Do he gets to kill these damn elk eaters but not us. Maybe we'll get some this fall legally. It's way overdue. Our moose are depleted as our elk. If enough folks get serious about hunting wolves we can make a positive difference for the ungulates.

Awesome! We are ready!

Mudhen, thanks you just made my day 😊👍😎

Excellent; about time.

It's a shame the ESA has been abused by these wolf lovers. It only hurts our ability to help animals that are genuinely in crisis.

They violated the ESA in Idaho. We had a native strain of wolves that's been here forever. By law, those should have been protected. Instead, they imported the grays from Canada and they quickly bred the natives out of existence. The true Idaho wolf is now extinct.

good luck to all of you.
hopefully yall can get most of them
killed off. it's always seemed stupid
to me to try and re-establish something
that the gummint spent decades and millions
in bounty to try and eliminate.

Good news everyone. SSS now reduced to S.

bears are known too for taking care of the calves .... they need to be hunted too.

Oboy, aint that the truth. Don't get me fired up on that.
Upside though, when Wyomingites commence some serious predator control, the so called wuff counters won't miss the reduction.

OK! Will keep an eye out this fall.

Had the season mot been closed suddenly, I would have a nice wolf hide on my wall. I had a great chance at one a couple years back and had to just sit and watch him be a wolf, which was fun, too.

Now lets work on grizzly bears