Wolf Hunting Meeting Next Tuesday
Written by Andrew-Rossi on May 4, 2018
Local residents are asked to chime in on regulations for the 2018 wolf hunting season.
The Game and Fish Department says that the population of gray wolves in Wyoming continues to be healthy and exceed all criteria established to show that the species is recovered. As part of the management of wolves Wyoming uses hunting as it does with many other species.
The total minimum population of wolves in Wyoming living outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Reservation at the end of 2017 was 238, with 198 in the Wolf Trophy Game Management Area. The proposed mortality limit for 2018 is expected to result in an end of year population of around 160 wolves in the trophy game area, similar to the 2017 wolf hunting season. That’s according to Ken Mills, Game and Fish’s large carnivore biologist who focuses on wolves.
Mills says the primary change for the 2018 wolf hunting season proposal is adjustment of the wolf mortality limit, which was increased to 58.
Game and Fish’s proposed regulation is available for review and comment online and includes the allocation of higher hunt area quotas in those areas where wolf conflicts with livestock are high, or in areas where wolves are impacting big game populations.
A public meeting on these regulation changes and others will take place next Tuesday, May 8th, at 6 p.m. at the Park County Library in Cody. Written comments will be accepted through 5 p.m. June 4th.