Governor pushes wolf delisting
by Cat Urbigkit
May 21, 2007
Wyoming’s recently passed statute governing the management of the gray
wolf is the state’s wolf plan and should be accepted as such by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, according to Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal.
Freudenthal made the statement in a letter to FWS regional director Mitch
King last week.
“You have continually dismissed the statutory plan,” Freudenthal wrote. “I
would respectfully suggest that the contingent plan adopted by the
legislature is actually a more permanent and clear statement of Wyoming’s
intention than a document adopted by an administrative agency. As a matter
of law, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission has only those powers
granted by the Legislature. In the case of gray wolf management, the
legislative enactment is very thorough and complete. I remain perplexed by
your willingness to accept a draft not yet adopted plan from the agency while
you reject a thorough, contingent plan that has been put in the statute
books.”
Freudenthal added: “That being said, I am very interested in seeing the
delisting process move forward. … I would hope that you would reconsider
your demand that we have an administratively adopted gray wolf
management plan and recognize the detailed plan in our statutes.”
Freudenthal expressed frustration with FWS’s failure to address “the
significant impacts that wolves are having on Wyoming’s ungulate herds.”
Freudenthal charged to King that FWS “promised one thing in negotiations
and delivered something entirely different in the context of wolf delisting.”
Freudenthal urged FWS to move forward with Wyoming’s inclusion in the final
rule to delist the gray wolf.
“Nowhere in the Endangered Species Act does it specify the particular
mechanism (statute, rule, plan, guidance document, etc.) that must be
employed to qualify as an "adequate regulatory mechanism" to determine
whether a species is endangered or threatened,” Freudenthal’s letter stated.
“Surely the clear and concise statutory provisions set forth in House Bill 213,
having greater weight under Wyoming law than any administrative adoption
of a wolf management plan, would be a sufficient ‘regulatory mechanism’ for
your review for ‘adequacy’ under the Act.”
|
