Wyoming Wolf Meeting

[Long Time Long Ranger]

On my way to the Wyoming wolf meeting. If you have any points you want me to bring up please post quickly. I will report back later. I have an agenda I want answers to.

 

[Coyboy]

Ask them if it is OK to eat the wolfs you shot. health issues, problems with disease ect. ect.

Because elk meat is getting hard to come by.

 

[gcamp54]

Elk meat is one of our great natural resources that supplies American's with some of the best natural food for human consumption not to mention what it does for the local and national economy. It took 100 years of conservation to get it where it was at its peak. We should not be feeding this scarce natural resource to the dogs.

Gordon

 

[bigngreen]

Good luck and take it to them!! We used to have the best elk hunting in MT in my area but this year has been dead, we're having to find solitary bulls tight in the timber. All the elk I've cut this year have scaring on their shoulders from wolves biting at them and we shot a deer this year with Hydatid worms on it's lungs and liver which we've never seen here in 6 generations. Hopefully you Wyoming guys can fight back hard enough to repopulate the Wests elk herd after this all washes out!

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

I just got back. This was the only meeting concerning wolf delisting that will be held in Wyoming and it was not publicized. I found out two hours before it started and I was the first speaker. I had no time to prepare anything so I had to shoot from the hip. I did a ten minute interview with channel two abc news out of Casper afterwards. I do not know when excerpts from the interviews will run.

Basically the USFWS presented to the public their proposal for delisting the wolf in Wyoming. Their goal has been and continues to be handing over wolf management to the state of Wyoming however they have been blocked by federal judges on several occasions. The primary problem in Wyoming was their control plan was to aggressive, the protected area for controled trophy hunting was to small and there were questions about the states ability to permanantly maintain population objectives. Also the numbers of wolves and breeding pairs to be maintained were to low.

Their were a number of anti hunting groups well represented at the meeting basically stating it was illegal to delist wolves because they did not have viable populations throughout the entire state. They were very upset about the area outside the trophy mangement area where wolves can be hunted without restriction. The mangement area in a nutshell is the yellowstone ecosystem. Basically from the Idaho border through Hoback canyon continuing through Pinedale to include the southern wind river range to just south of Lander. Then North through just east of Dubois along the western border of the Wind river indian reservation following the southeastern edge of the national forest along to the wood river and then on into meteetse. Then up the hiway to cody and then up the clarks fork to montana. The NW corner of WY basically.

In this area tags will be issued to hunters to control wolf populations for 10 breeding pairs and 150 wolves outside of the park. Outside of this area wolf hunting is unlimited. Inside the management zone ranchers with problem wolves may take or authorize persons to take problem wolves on their property or lease. This would not count against the tag quota.

The main thing I got was that we as hunters need to support this delisting effort and support this proposal as to hunting of wolves. If we try for more we leave it open for a federal judge to relist them and put the control back in the hands of the USFWS which they do not want and we do not want. Right now we can not get to aggresive with wolf management or there will be a public outcry to stop wolf hunting again completely.

Right now best case is this plan being in place by October 2012 for legal wolf hunting in Wyoming. That is if no future political snags arise. Management models show they can issue tags for approximately 35-40% of total wolves in the area to maintain the population. That would be near 100 tags however they will not decide until at least next summer. The main thing for game and fish is to issue tag numbers to meet population objectives as described in the grey wolf management plan.

 

[royinidaho]

Thanks for your extra effort and report.

I'm all for the proposal but not a WY resident. . .

 

[HARPERC]

I thank you for doing this! Any thoughts on how us non-residents can help you?

 

[bigngreen]

Sounds like the same undertone our meeting had. Our regional wolf people basically begged us to get behind the plan they had, it was not as aggressive as they needed but they though it was what they could get done which was better than nothing.

Did they mention how they are determining a "breeding pair" or pack, I found out in one of our meeting that how they define those terms can make a major impact!!

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

Bigngreen, You are right. Not the best it can be considering sound management but the best we can hope for. There were some very angry anti groups represented that adamantly want no delisting and trying to attack the plan anywhere they could find a weak spot. Unfortunately we have got to understand wolves are now here to stay and nothing we can do about that. The key is how much wolf management can we get and keep the anti judge in Montana from shutting down the delisting process again. I have read the Wyoming management plan and I can tell you this is the best it can get. The anti groups were attacking it strongly that it allowed to aggesive an approach to wolf control within the management area and violently attacking the fact they can be hunted anytime in most of Wyoming.

Here is how everyone can help whether you are a resident or not. Go to www.regulations.gov. Enter keyword ID, FWS-R6-ES-2011-0039, then click submit comment. All you need to say is that you strongly support gray wolf delisting in the state of Wyoming and strongly feel that gray wolf management should be administered by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. Further I support the Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan.

Any simple statement showing support for delisting will help. We have got to get wolf management in the hands of the individual states where it belongs. You could add that you feel the wolf management plan is not aggressive enough to control wolf populations within the Wolf Trophy Game Management Area. Hunters have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in management and stocking programs to provide healthy big gmae populations in this and other areas. Moose and elk populations have been decimated within this area and many wildlife viewing and hunting opportunities have been lost which severely affects the economy in these areas.

We have untill January 13 to submit comments. We are working on a statement that can be uploaded from your computer to this website which would make it easy for everyone. I will keep everyone informed to that. We appreciate any help from hunters all over the country.

 

[Scot E]

Bigngreen, You are right. Not the best it can be considering sound management but the best we can hope for. There were some very angry anti groups represented that adamantly want no delisting and trying to attack the plan anywhere they could find a weak spot. Unfortunately we have got to understand wolves are now here to stay and nothing we can do about that. The key is how much wolf management can we get and keep the anti judge in Montana from shutting down the delisting process again. I have read the Wyoming management plan and I can tell you this is the best it can get. The anti groups were attacking it strongly that it allowed to aggesive an approach to wolf control within the management area and violently attacking the fact they can be hunted anytime in most of Wyoming.

Here is how everyone can help whether you are a resident or not. Go to www.regulations.gov. Enter keyword ID, FWS-R6-ES-2011-0039, then click submit comment. All you need to say is that you strongly support gray wolf delisting in the state of Wyoming and strongly feel that gray wolf management should be administered by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. Further I support the Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan.

Any simple statement showing support for delisting will help. We have got to get wolf management in the hands of the individual states where it belongs. You could add that you feel the wolf management plan is not aggressive enough to control wolf populations within the Wolf Trophy Game Management Area. Hunters have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in management and stocking programs to provide healthy big gmae populations in this and other areas. Moose and elk populations have been decimated within this area and many wildlife viewing and hunting opportunities have been lost which severely affects the economy in these areas.

We have untill January 13 to submit comments. We are working on a statement that can be uploaded from your computer to this website which would make it easy for everyone. I will keep everyone informed to that. We appreciate any help from hunters all over the country.

Just finished submitting my opinion. I am not from WY but every voice counts here and I would encourage everyone here to get on board with this.

For those that aren't paying attention, there is a concerted effort right now to re-introduce the Mexican wolf into areas of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Folks this battle is going to affect everyone if we don't get on top of it soon. This is not a battle but a war and our opponents are ready for the long haul.

LTLR, I realize this meeting wasn't advertised but I am curious how outnumbered you were by green weenies? I am sure the ratio was ugly! We have got to get involved guys!

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

Scot, I am glad you brought that up. I was very dissapointed the hunting community did not turn out for this. Some members of the cattleman's association were there but hardly any hunters. But the anti's were well represented with prepared statements that showed they were well informed well ahead of the meeting. So why did all the greenies know well ahead and no hunters showed up? Maybe that is why we have been losing this battle for 15 years and during that time lost a good portion of our hunting opportunities in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. I assure you all animal rights groups have a prepared document to be uploaded by their millions of members who will never be in the backcountry of these states. Please, we have got to speak up on this and let our voices be heard. Comment for delisting and Wyoming management.

 

[Outlaw6.0]

Done, I just submitted my comments on the issue, thanks LTLR for the heads up. Up until now I thought I was on top of this issue, but I knew nothing about this meeting...

 

[BH Hunter]

Comments submitted.
Good luck Wy

 

[T3-OleMan]

Comments submitted. Thanks L.T.L.R. for the link.
Good luck Wy & ADJ. States.