The state of Wyoming is facing immediate repercussions from a federal judge’s decision yesterday. A ruling from U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson prompted state officials to postpone the wolf hunting season, which was set to begin on Oct. 1. The Wyoming Game and Fish will attempt to refund the 2014 season wolf hunting licenses.
The Federal Wildlife Service (FWS) released management of wolves in 2012 to state discretion. Shortly after the transition, a suit was filed by The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Defenders of Wildlife, challenging the actions of the FWS. Despite Wyoming’s regulations assuring that 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs outside of Yellowstone National Park would be maintained annually, Judge Jackson said the plan is insufficient. Jackson said numbers promised were nearly twice the requirement of the Fish and Wildlife Service conditions, and that the FWS conditions were “arbitrary and capricious.” The judge ruled in favor of those who filed the lawsuit in 2012.
“The court concludes that it was arbitrary and capricious for the service to rely on the state’s non-binding promises to maintain a particular number of wolves when the availability of that specific numerical buffer was such a critical aspect of the delisting,” Jackson said in the decision.
The ruling reinstates the Endangered Species protections that were in place prior to 2012, making it unlawful to kill wolves anywhere in the state. The state’s regulations were divided into two sections with differing regulations in past years. One portion in the western part of the state, roughly 20 percent, has a hunting season similar to other trophy game in the state, and the other 80 percent of the state classifies wolves as predators that can be taken on site without permit.
Wyoming officials said the state has taken actions in the wake of the ruling to try and minimize the decision’s impacts.
“We believe an emergency rule can remedy this,” Gov. Matt Mead said, in response to the ruling. “I have instructed the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Attorney General to proceed accordingly.”
The Director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Scott Talbott said his agency’s handling of wolves for the past two years has been adequate, and said he would describe the effort as “sound management.”
Some state sportsmen and agriculturists have expressed negative sentiments to the ruling, citing harms they said could be potentially caused by an unchecked wolf population.
“The key to wolf sustainability in Wyoming is social tolerance and the ability of state wildlife managers to achieve and maintain the cultural carrying capacity of wolves,” said the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, in defense of Wyoming’s Management plan in the summer of 2013.
Bonnie Rice, who works with The Sierra Club’s Wild America initiative, said she was pleased with ruling.
“We think the court is right to require them to develop a plan that’s more science-based and doesn’t treat wolves as vermin in the majority of the state,” Rice said in a statement.
The Humane Society made a statement, saying, “[the] sport hunting of wolves is inconsistent with the need for continued protections for this iconic species.”
