Utah Legislature: Senate Demos howl at plan to remove wolves from list

SALT LAKE CITY — Senate Democrats protested proposed wolf legislation Monday, while Republican supporters said the bill would send a valuable message to the federal government.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, acknowledged that the bill has aroused emotion on both sides but said the state must act to avert disaster.

"Wolves are predators, and despite what Disney portrays them as, as loving little fur-balls, they make their living by killing other animals," he said.

The bill asks federal officials to remove wolves in Utah from the endangered species list.

Christensen argued that statistics from surrounding states where wolves have been reintroduced indicate that big-game populations suffer from wolf packs.

"The results are devastating, possibly to the point of no recovery," he said.

According to reports released by the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks division on its Web site, elk populations in that state have declined "substantially" since wolves were reintroduced.

The Web site also noted, however, that wolves by themselves do not initiate declines in elk and other prey populations but can "exacerbate (declines) or lengthen periods of prey population rebounds." Wolves were delisted in Montana in May 2009.

Wolves are still listed as an endangered species in all but a small area of northern Utah, and state wildlife officials say only a few individual wolves have been tracked in Utah.

Because of this, critics labeled the proposed bill as "premature" and overly broad.

"I think it is still too heavy-handed," said Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City.

Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, disputed assertions that wolves are not a significant presence in the state.

"I can tell you there are wolf packs in Utah," he said. "I have not seen them, but I have heard them."

The debate revolved around both the potential impact of wolves in Utah and the perceived need to send national wildlife officials a message.

Federal administrators are preventing the state from effectively implementing its wolf management plan by not replying to state officials' requests, said Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan.

"I would encourage us to pass this bill to send a message to the Fish & Wildlife Service … that they need to reply," he said.

Lawmakers are just "crying wolf," said Allison Jones, a member of the Utah Wolf Forum who helped author the state's wolf management plan.

"The state doesn't need federal approval for the plan," she said. "I think it is really unfortunate that people are saying the plan doesn't work."

Jones said while state wildlife officials did not anticipate that the federal government would not delist wolves in Utah all at once, the plan is still effective.