Court puts wolves in Wyoming’s crosshairs

In the latest in a years-long saga, on Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided in favor of Wyoming’s wolf management plan, which treats the animals as vermin, meaning wolves could be shot on site in most of the state’s unregulated predator zone. Wyoming’s plan commits to maintaining at least 10 breeding pairs and at least 100 wolves, not including the population in Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation, within the state. The ruling could quickly open about 85 percent of the state to wolf killing where Wyoming law considers the species “predatory animals.” Predatory animals may be killed by any method at any time and without a license. The predatory animal zone accounts for about 19 percent of wolves’ suitable Wyoming habitat. “Our lawyers are still looking at it,” Wyoming Chief Game Warden Brian Nesvik said Friday of the ruling. Regarding the killing of wolves as predatory animals, “there are probably some steps that need to be taken for that to formally happen.”