Director Talbott Ignores Working with Tribal Group Protect The Wolves™
To Establish what is right and protect Tribal Resources that exit Yellowstone or Teton national Parks. We asked that he delay setting and Wolf Season without due diligence on Our Request to change Wyoming Hunting Regulations. Director Talbott is in direct Violation of the Indian and Public Trusts, as are the Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioners for failure to vote the direction the comment majority was on their comment period.
Director Talbott told the Department of Justice that he refused to meet with the Tribal groups, and Protect The Wolves™ members as initially requested that Talbott approved, He canceled 3 days before the scheduled meeting. Talbott only wanted to meet with our Director Roger Dobson who informed him that his response was late, that individuals had change their plans to be present for this Face to Face Meeting. That failure to post his blatant disregard for a Petition to Change Wyoming Hunting Regulations.
Wyoming has proven over the years already that they are not capable of managing wildlife resources period by already being busted for selling Outlawed and Banned Poisons, and clearly now, with their refusal to allow Our Regulation change request to include the Sacred Resource Protection Zone surrounding National Parks in Wyoming the attention that the request deserves. They pushed forward their old Regulations, and simply asked the Commissioners to vote it back in… This in and of itself shows Wyomings failure to regard Our Resources as Sacred.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission cleared the way for an Oct. 1 wolf-hunting season in the trophy-game area this year but the new regulation must first be signed by Gov. Matt Mead.
The commission voted to approve the Chapter 47 gray-wolf hunting regulations at its July 18 meeting in Afton. Wyoming Game and Fish (G&F) held meetings around the state, including in Pinedale on June 1, to take public comments.
“The (wolf hunt) regulation goes into effect when the governor signs it,” noted Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman Renny McKay. “He has 75 days to review it. That’s when people can start buying the licenses, but the season does not start until Oct. 1.”
Hundreds of written comments submitted to G&F and reviewed by the commission before the July meeting followed numerous templates and many also were original, but they were alike in forcefully opposing any wolf hunts in Wyoming.
One major request was for an additional boundary, sometimes called a “sacred resource protection safety zone,” of 31 to 100 miles besides the trophy-game management zone around Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. Writers cited lost tourism dollars from lost wildlife-viewing opportunities.
Many also use threats and a call for an economic blackmail of Yellowstone and Teton Park to protest wolf-hunting seasons in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
“I planned to bring a group of friends to Yellowstone and Teton this summer but I am cancelling our trip,” a California commenter wrote. “As long as you people take our money to manage our wildlife, we’ll take our money elsewhere.”
Another wrote, “We are coming for you! Murderers!”
An Ohio commenter said the wolf hunts “are no different than what Hitler did to the Jews or what Christians suffered during the Roman games.”
One Wyoming writer acknowledged the hunting season as “part of the bargain in wolf reintroduction” but asked G&F officials to consider a buffer area where those who want to see live wolves in and near the parks for people’s tourism livelihoods.
Another Wyoming writer asked G&F to take a proactive stance and “pay attention to the tourists in your state.”
Most of the comments supporting the wolf hunts quoted devastation of elk and deer herds or asked for earlier bowhunting seasons in September that coincide with elk and deer archery seasons, without a larger quota.
“It’s best to have hunters thin them rather than G&F,” one Midwest supporter wrote. Another suggested letting wolves roam densely to function as a check on chronic wasting disease in wildlife, much as some believed the early wolf introductions would stop brucellosis transmission from wildlife to livestock.
A Wyoming commenter reminded G&F that the wolves here now “are a nonnative wolf species transported here larger” than any native wolves.
A Michigan hunter wrote, “Please make sure your quotas are high enough so we can continue to hunt elk in your beautiful state.”
A Pinedale woman wrote, “WYGF has done an excellent job of collecting data on the existing populations of wolves living in Wyoming” and is “very capable of managing them.”
As for if and when Gov. Mead will officially sign the wolf-hunting regulation with its quota of 44 wolves for the northwest trophy-game management area – it wasn’t known as of press time Monday.
Next up, grizzlies!
Wyoming is also preparing for another iconic Rocky Mountain species to be delisted on Monday, July 31 – the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) grizzly bear, which will also be managed by Wyoming G&F and Montana and Idaho’s wildlife agencies.
“Grizzly bears will then fall under state management,” said Brian Nesvik, G&F’s chief game warden, in an email.
Conservation groups have filed petitions of notice of their intents to sue once they are delisted.
“Litigation could place them back on the list, but we are hopeful the delisting will persist and that management will remain with the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission,” Nesvik said.
Locally, G&F is trapping and moving grizzlies that attack livestock, particularly in the Upper Green.
“There have been over 20 confirmed livestock depredations in the Upper Green this summer,” he explained. “We have been handling these depredations similar to years past using all options available to help reduce it, including trapping and relocating and removing offending bears.”
The G&F reported assisting the FWS with trapping and relocating one male grizzly on July 19 and another on July 21. Both were taken to remote sites that are currently grizzly-occupied.