Advisory panel endorses plan for wolves, with 6 changes

The southern and southeastern RACs have already agreed to recommend the Draft Wolf Management Plan to the Wildlife Board, with the Farm Bureau recommendations as their only changes, according to DWR director Jim Karpowitz. Two RACs in more urban areas of the state will hold their final public input meetings next week.

"I hope we come out of this with a plan, and it's up to the public to help us come up with a plan," said Karpowitz.

In 2002, state lawmakers directed wildlife managers to formulate a management plan for the eventual immigration of wolves into Utah. Wolves have been reintroduced into Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming by federal law.

The Draft Wolf Management Plan was formulated over a two-year period by a 13-member group. It is designed to guide management of wolves in Utah during an interim period from delisting of the wolf by the federal government as an endangered animal, until 2015 — or until it's determined that wolves have established in Utah.

Failure to present the Wildlife Board with recommendations on the Draft Wolf Management Plan would mean that another plan would have to be reworked from the ground up — a process that could again take years and come too late, said northeastern RAC chairman Clay Hammam.

The unmistakable sentiment from the large crowd made up mainly of sportsmen and ranchers was that wolves aren't welcome in Utah. Short of that, the group generally seemed to agree that the state should plan for their management by taking a proactive approach and do its best to protect wildlife and livestock against wolves.

DWR officials say there are currently no wolves in Utah. A Duchesne County resident adamantly disagreed, saying he knows of "three wolf sightings" in the Hanna area over the past few months.

Coming up with a funding source to manage wolves and pay for livestock killed by wolves was an issue the draft plan did not adequately address, said Sen. Beverly Evans, R-Altamont.

"Funding should not come on the back of hunters or sportsmen," said Evans.

Hammam said those who favor wolves in Utah need to be the ones who help support their cause financially.

"If we really need wolves, we need people who want wolves to stand up and be counted . . . in very few instances do they put up their money," said Hammam, referring to the fact that just a few thousand dollars have been collected by the state through income tax checkoffs for wolf management. In contrast, he said sportsmen annually donate hundreds of thousands of dollars for the management of wildlife in the state. "It's not fair to raise wildlife to feed wolves."

The issue of why the state can't prohibit wolves came up a few times.

"A vote that says 'no wolves' doesn't mean there aren't going to be any, it just means they'll be managed by the Federal Wildlife Service," DWR mammals program coordinator Kevin Bunnell said.

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