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

Amen.

I always thought they were fair game. Now they are legal game.

216 wolves in Wyoming????

I'd say they are off, buy a LOT!

Great news, MH. Thanks. Now, how about trapping?

Idaho got a wolf hunting season first because they played the feds' game. WY got it later but I think it's a better system. Idaho has wolves in many places where they need to be shot on sight.

Yeah. "shot on sight". Them woofs are pretty good on not getting to the "on sight" part - especially after the first few are taken. Most will be take incidental to other activities.

You ain't never gonna catch up!

From an article in the Jackson newspaper today: " Besides the 210 wolves estimated in the trophy game area, there were another 108 in Yellowstone National Park, 50 in the predator zone and nine on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Mills said. That would put the statewide count at 377."

In early November 2015, I was on horseback mid-morning in the Shoshone NF and cut wolf tracks several times in the fresh snow then while was eating a sandwich looked up and there were three wolves within 200 yards weaving down a basin I had just ridden down. The wolves showed no fear and only mild curiosity. Some mule deer were in the basin and wolves trotted within 100 yards of then and did not go after the deer. Had seen a mature female grizzly two days earlier and apparently she did not get the message was after "be bear aware" season closed for the year. About 50 mule deer were within 50 to 200 yards of the bear though the deer were feeding and even in some cases not even facing the bear. The bear was rolling deadfall logs left over from the fire years before.

Isn't that the truth. 1000 wolves in 83k square miles doesn't put one behind every tree.

Still off by ALOT

Last year, there was confirmation of 6 packs between Lander and South Pass alone. Predator zone, ha. Wish I had saved the article on it. F&G must think we have no memory or are stupid.
Look at the land between those 2 locations. 2 confirmed packs South of the Sweetwater river, not counting the one they had to eliminate near Muddy Ridge West of Farson, because of calf kills. What percentage is that of say Central Wyoming to the Western border trophey area? Then look at the land total for the Wind River Reservation. Then look at the Pinedale region, which had numerous calf and elk kills, witnessed by area residents, and several articles about the problem back in 2007. Then look at Dubois, at least 2 packs within the immediate area of the town alone. And on and on.

Wyogal, I was in Elk area 25 last year and I saw 8 of them before noon.

And I had not gone more then about 6 miles from the pavement. All of them were from about 1 mile of the highway to about 1-2 miles past Oregon Butte.

One group of 3 and then a single about 1000 yards away. Next saw another single that was much lighter in color, and about 30 minutes later I drove the opposite way on the main road, and I saw anther group of 3.

There are a LOT more then the state of the feds are admitting to.

That fails to mention any in the Bighorns and unless someone lost a super big dog , I have seen tracks 50 miles apart up there..........

Wyoming 260, I hear ya. I have no doubt they're in the Bighorns. The areas I mentioned are only about 1/3 of the land mass from Central Wy to the trophy boundary area, and have at least 10 wolf packs total, just in those areas. That could conceivably be 70 wolves right there.
Wolves have been sighted in the Gas Hills and areas south and West of Jeffery City, and of course all around szihn's elk area, Atlantic City and into the Red Desert.

Hope you are all packing.. Hoping to get a shot this yr.