JEFF GEARINO Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Thursday, February 16, 2006 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - Four years after drafting a state plan, Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials are ready to assume management of the grizzly bear once its federal protection is removed under the Endangered Species Act.
In November, federal officials took the first step toward ending the grizzly bear's protected status and proposed delisting the animal.
Wyoming's Game and Fish Commission will review the federal grizzly bear delisting rules when the seven-member board meets today and Friday at the Hitching Post in Cheyenne, according to Game and Fish information specialist Jeff Obrecht.
Obrecht said the commission will also hear an update on the Game and Fish Department's surveillance efforts last fall for chronic wasting disease and will consider adopting a revised wasting disease management plan based partly on those reports.
The commission approved the state's grizzly bear management plan in February 2002. The document allows for the management of the grizzly bear outside of the primary conservation area, a federally designated area that consists of Yellowstone National Park and adjoining forest areas.
The plan said grizzly bears would be allowed to expand outside of current occupancy zones around Yellowstone into areas that are "biologically suitable and socially acceptable." In 2004, the department drafted an occupancy plan that allowed for grizzlies outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, but in lower densities.
State officials believe that Yellowstone's grizzly bears could be removed from the list this year, but acknowledge that litigation could delay the move. Officials estimate there are about 600 grizzly bears in the Yellowstone recovery area.
Under Wyoming's management plan, the department would continue to classify grizzly bears as trophy game animals and would allow hunting of the animals by residents and nonresidents. Each year under the plan, the department will recommend grizzly bear hunting seasons to the commission based on grizzly bear mortality thresholds.
In other business, the commission will hear the results of the agency's 2005 chronic wasting disease surveillance efforts and the department's plans for the coming year to combat the disease in Wyoming.
The disease was first found in the state at the agency's Tom Thorne/Beth Williams Sybille Canyon research facility in southeast Wyoming and has been documented in wild herds of both deer and elk. The disease causes infected animals to basically waste away and die, hence the name.
Three years ago, Game and Fish began a massive statewide surveillance program aiming to document the distribution and prevalence of the disease in Wyoming. The program has revealed the disease in several new areas around the state in recent years, including near Glenrock in central Wyoming, near Worland in the Big Horn Mountains and in the Black Hills near Newcastle.
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* The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission meets today and Friday at the Best Western Hitching Post Inn in Cheyenne. The meetings begin at 9 a.m. each day.
* Public comments on non-agenda items will be heard by the commission at 3:55 p.m. today.
Reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@trib.com.