CHEYENNE, Wyo. – In a bid to take over management of gray wolves, Wyoming argues there’s no biological reason that the predators should be treated as a trophy game species throughout the entire state.
The state made that argument Monday in a brief filed in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne.
Wyoming sued the federal government in June after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to leave gray wolves in Wyoming on the endangered species list while delisting them elsewhere in the Northern Rockies.
In its rejection of Wyoming’s plan, the service cited the state’s intent to manage wolves as a predator species in most of the state and as a trophy game species in the state’s northwest corner.
A spokesman for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division declined to comment on Wyoming’s argument.