Wyoming’s shaken up by the Federal government’s abandonment delisting, some relative reason seems to be seeping into the Cowboy State :
Legislator proposes changes to wolf plan – Casper Star-Tribune
Livestock wants to hold the party line, apparently all the way to the indefinite listing of wolves.
Comments
Keith Gingery, unlike most of his Republican colleagues in the Wyoming House, is a straight shooter who actually listens to people before he takes action. Whether he can get his bill to change dual status of wolves to trophy game status past the opposition of the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association, the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association, and the Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife is another matter.
Based upon my long experience with Wyoming politics, I doubt the Wyoming Legislature will drop dual status except in exchange for a huge federal “bribe,” both political and economic. I think conservationists should pay close attention to whatever deals might get worked out as this proceeds.
and you can bet it will include a s***pot more welfare for the livestock industry
Interesting issue from the “Republic of Wyoming.”
Y’know why can’t Wyoming just list them as non-game animals… its not that hard.
at this point – they’re still digging their own hole.
The law that requires Game and Fish to reimburse ranchers for losses to trophy game is the sticking point. Rep. Gingery is a self-describe green Republican, for him to usher this bill through Cheyenne stockmen and Game and Fish will have to reach some sort of compromise regarding the paying for confirmed and likely losses. Game and Fish’s budget is 100% reliant on the sale of fishing and hunting tags/licenses. Since hunting is waning, revenue will not be enough to reimburse ranchers and run all the usual wildlife relate management issues. Could Wyoming create a trust fund with energy money to deal with wolves? We’ll see what happens during 8 week legislative session that begin in January.
I think that instead of hearing all these livestock problems why don’t we get rid of all the sheep and cows in Wyoming.
The last Wyoming legislature created a short-term General Fund allocation to G&F to cover livestock losses as well as hire Mike Jimenez and a wolf crew for wolf “management.” The question is how long the Legislature will kick in several million out of the General Fund for wolf management. From a historical perspective, I think not very long.
G&F has been in a funding crisis for as long as I’ve been in Wyoming–16 years–and finds itself crawling to the Capitol every year to beg for General Funds to do various things. Hunting and fishing licenses simply won’t cut it anymore as a source of funding. In a sense, this is not a good thing, because it subjects G&F to even more politicization than it has in the past, which over the last 16 years has been pretty bad. It can get worse, and probably will.
A trust fund funded by Wyoming is highly unlikely, as the pressure is for a federal fund. Given the multi-trillion dollar debt that Bush et al. have imposed upon the country, I think that unlikely as well.
In a sense, we’re watching the model of conservation, especially conservation funding, break down in fundamental ways.
RH
This actually sounds finally like some common sense on wolves coming out of WY. Drop the “shoot on sight” portion of their “management”, and truly try to manage wolves for real.
And to think if this was done in ’02, maybe states would have control when the delisting plan called for it.
Seems some people seem to have to learn the hard way.