Saturday, July 2, 2011

State, feds plan high-level talks on wolves; Barrasso lifts hold on nominee


CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director nominee Daniel Ashe will visit Wyoming next week to work toward a deal on delisting Wyoming wolves.
In a phone call with U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on Tuesday, Salazar committed to the visit to “aggressively pursue a solution” to the yearslong dispute over wolves, according to Barrasso’s office.
In response, Barrasso announced that he will lift a monthlong hold on a Senate vote to confirm Ashe as Fish and Wildlife director.
Wyoming has been fighting Fish and Wildlife for years to accept the state’s wolf management plan and remove the state’s roughly 300 wolves from the federal endangered species list.
The state’s plan allows unregulated killing of the animals in all but the northwest corner of the state. Fish and Wildlife, on the other hand, wants wolves to be classified as “trophy game” throughout the state, meaning that they could be hunted only with a license.
The Department of the Interior said Salazar and Ashe would visit with Gov. Matt Mead sometime next week, though further details weren’t available.
Salazar met with Mead in late March about wolves, suggesting a deadline of a month to reach an agreement on a management plan.
Following the meeting, Wyoming’s wolf negotiators sent a formal letter to Fish and Wildlife detailing the state’s position, said Mead spokesman Renny MacKay.
But for the next 40 days or so, they got no reply.
In response, Barrasso placed the hold on Ashe’s nomination on May 27. Under Senate rules, any senator can secretly place a “hold” against a bill or nomination, preventing a Senate vote from taking place.
A little more than a week later, on June 6, Fish and Wildlife sent a formal response to the state’s letter. Negotiations have continued since then, MacKay said.
In the phone call Tuesday, Barrasso told Salazar he would lift his hold on Ashe’s nomination only if the two personally visited Wyoming to work on a wolf deal, said Barrasso spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore in an email.
Whether wolves should be federally protected or managed by states and subject to hunting to control their numbers has been tied up in the court system for years. The legislation did an end-run around the courts while drawing new lawsuits from environmentalists.
Montana and Idaho, meanwhile, have begun preparing for wolf hunts this fall.

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