CODY, WYOMING - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has accepted Wyoming's wolf management plan. Now plans for delisting the wolf can move forward in Wyoming as well as Montana and Idaho.
The Service rejected Wyoming's former plan in 2004. That plan allowed people to shoot and trap wolves outside Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and the Wilderness area surrounding the parks.
The new plan classifies wolves as trophy game animals, which can be hunted in a larger area around the parks. Outside that region, they still can be shot on sight, and trapped as predators. But, Wyoming's plan does not go into effect until after delisting occurs.
Cody Region Game and Fish Supervisor Gary Brown explains, "Right now it doesn't change anything that people can or can't do. The wolf is still a listed species under the endangered species act. Until it is taken off the endangered species act, those regulations are still in place."
Brown said even after the wolf is delisted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming's Game and Fish Commission will have to draw up regulations to allow wolf hunts.