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Twelve years after reintroducing gray wolves to the Northern Rockies, the federal government has announced a plan that allows many of these same wolves and their offspring to be killed. It is getting outrageous support from the local communities that are supported financially by travel and tourism dollars – by people who come to Wyoming to experience nature first hand.
Many come to revel in the rebirth of Yellowstone – and the resurgence of the gray wolves is a cornerstone of that resurgence.
According to several press releases, the government wants to remove the wolves from the endangered species list in late 2007 or early 2008. The new proposal allows wolves in the Northern Rockies to be killed before they are formally delisted.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service says it needs to make killing wolves easier to protect big game from wolf predation.
Idaho and Wyoming state officials have said they intend to immediately kill up to 700 animals, the vast majority of which would be in Wyoming, because Wyoming’s plan classifies wolves as “predatory animals” in three-fourths of the state, allowing them to be killed by anyone, anytime in that area.
“The State of Wyoming would designate wolves as a ‘Trophy Game Species’ within the area defined in the proposal, an area of suitable wolf habitat that is demonstrated to be capable of supporting at least 15 breeding pairs,” writes Governor Freudenthal in a May 18 letter.
Time is running short – we must let Wyoming understand that their actions have a much broader ramification than they’re considering – that cowboy attitudes from the early 1800s don’t apply when you stand to lose tourism dollars from a minimum of 5000 people each year.
