Protect The Wolves® Spoke with Tyler Abbott 2 days ago. Asked him to Produce a Current NEPA EIS. At that time he could only answer “I think they did one” We asked him to Email it to us, hasn’t showed up yet. We also asked them to Cease Verbally to conduct a thorough investigation of further options as opposed to Lethal Removal. Because we had presented him with releasing these wolves to a Native American Religious Group. Was it our Request on the Phone that made them step back? Who knows…. We can only hope that enough of our Followers helped in calling… which made Tyler think it was safer to stop than continue on. Thank you to all Followers who rang Tylers Phone off of the hook 😉
Federal wildlife managers trying to reduce conflict between wolves and cattle along Spring Gulch Road have stopped trapping and killing operations for now.
Two wolves from the Pinnacle Peak Pack were caught in foothold traps and shot by U.S. Department of Agriculture-Wildlife Services personnel before the call was made Thursday morning to cease lethally targeting the pack. Last week, after two adult cattle were killed and four calves maimed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave Wildlife Services an authorization to kill four wolves from the pack, said Tyler Abbott, the agency’s deputy field supervisor for Wyoming.
“We haven’t seen a lot of activity the last two days, since we got those two,” Abbott said Thursday. “And we have a lot of other priorities throughout the state to attend to.”
“We’re going to pull out and watch it for the next few weeks, see how it goes,” he said, “and make the decision whether or not we got to come back.”
The Pinnacle Peak Pack, which dens on the nearby National Elk Refuge and roams into Grand Teton National Park, numbered an estimated 14 wolves at the beginning of the year. Among the more visible groups of wolves in the Jackson Hole area, the Pinnacle Peak Pack formed in 2009, and in wintertime its members, drawn to alfalfa-eating elk, can often be seen on the refuge from Fish Hatchery Hill with spotting scopes. Multiple animals in the pack are fitted with tracking collars.
Mike Foster, Wildlife Services’ Wyoming director, said a trapper in his employ witnessed members of the wolf pack still roaming private lands south of Grand Teton park as recently as Wednesday night.
“He’s seen them or they’ve been in the cattle every night except for last night,” Foster said.
“The wolves have not moved on,” he said. “We’re moving on because Tyler [Abbott] made the decision to stand down.”
Wildlife managers are prohibited from disclosing the names of livestock producers involved in depredations.
An employee of the Walton Ranch last week confirmed that Walton cattle have fallen to wolves in recent weeks, but the rancher declined to give an interview. The same man did not return phone calls Thursday.
Foster said the rancher experiencing depredations agreed to try out a preventative conflict technique to stave off more cattle from being killed.
“We’ve asked the rancher to pen their cows at night with an electrified fence,” Foster said. “They have done it the last two nights. It’s not a requirement, obviously, but that’s what we’ve asked them to do.”
One Jackson Hole wildlife activist said Fish and Wildlife’s decision to call off lethal removal of Pinnacle Peak Pack wolves was “good news.”
“This is an opportunity for our community to get on top of this and work together to try to determine what non-lethal activities will work,” West Gros Ventre Butte resident Lisa Robertson said. “We’re Teton County and we’re a gateway to a national park, and we really ought to set an example on how to prevent these kinds of things.”
Contact Mike Koshmrl at 732-7067 or environmental@jhnewsandguide.com.
Source: Near-town wolf trapping ceases – Jackson Hole News&Guide: Local