LANDER - Many critics of Wyoming's wolf management plan have predicted the imminent slaughter of up to two-thirds of the state's gray wolf population after the animal loses protection under the federal Endangered Species Act next month.

But state action might turn out to be quite a bit more tempered than many have envisioned, one official with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department indicated last week.

The state of Wyoming, led by Gov. Dave Freudenthal, fought hard to have its post-delisting wolf management plan accepted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A core component of that plan - which the federal government finally agreed to in December - is a dual classification for wolves in Wyoming.

Wolves in the extreme northwest of the state, where most of the animals are, will be classified as trophy game animals - making it illegal, in general, to kill them without a permit. The boundary of the trophy game area includes Cody, Meeteetse, Dubois, Pinedale and Jackson.

Outside of that zone, however - and in the majority of the state - wolves will be classified as predators, similar to coyotes, where they can be shot on sight, without limits, as long as the kills are reported within 10 days.

"There really aren't a lot of areas in Wyoming outside the trophy game area where it would be good for wolves to live," said Bill Rudd, the Cheyenne assistant division chief of the Game and Fish Department.

Game and Fish will approach the management of the trophy game population conservatively at first, Rudd said. The department will err on the side of caution with its initial hunting seasons, the first of which should begin in the fall.

"We're going to start conservatively to get a sense of how the take we allow affects the packs, and the number of breeding pairs there are," Rudd said. "We have to retain the numbers so they are not relisted. There'll be a learning curve as we go forward. Ideally, we'd like to be able to have hunters participate in the removal and take of excess wolves on an annual basis."

Those who are concerned about too many wolves being killed after the state takes control can examine the state's management history with other species such as bald eagles, grizzly bears and black-footed ferrets, which have also been removed from the endangered species list, Rudd said.

"We've got an excellent track record, and they're going to see the same thing with wolves," he said.

Is Wyoming ready?

The state still has a number of things to accomplish before it can actively manage wolves.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday it will remove wolves from federal protection at the end of this month, and following publication in the Federal Register there will be a 30-day waiting period before Wyoming, Idaho and Montana take over management of the wolf in the Northern Rockies.

Before the end of March, the Game and Fish Department intends to hire four new staff members to run the program, including wolf biologists and technicians, Rudd said. The department needs to put staff and procedures into place to allow it to respond to claims of livestock depredation by wolves within 48 hours of the reports.

Game and Fish also intends to complete a thorough review of all of the Fish and Wildlife Service research and management materials pertaining to wolves, and develop specific hunting and trapping regulations for the animals using that information.

And the department - and by extension, taxpayers - will have to pay for it all.

"We have a biennium budget request in the Legislature for $2.35 million to run that program," Rudd said. "That cost includes four permanent people, the purchase of radio collars, the cost of capturing wolves, the cost of monitoring wolves and dealing with depredation of livestock, and, of course, paying for the loss of livestock to wolves."

The budget request asks for more money for the first year than the second, to cover start-up costs. The request for year two is about $1 million.

When the department deems it necessary to destroy wolves, it will probably use "aerial removal" techniques, to shoot the wolves from helicopters, much the same way the Fish and Wildlife Service has done in recent years, Rudd said.

"I assume we would need to use the same technique, because that's been the experience so far. We may learn some different things, but that's been the technique the Fish and Wildlife Service has used successfully," Rudd said.

Environment reporter Chris Merrill can be reached at chris.merrill@trib.com or at (307) 267-6722.