Gov: feds should pay for wolves in Wyoming

Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Wednesday that if the federal government wants to set the rules for wolves in Wyoming, it can pay for their management. Freudenthal made his comments in Jackson before visiting with federal officials from the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service, although wolves were not specifically on his agenda. He spoke a few days after a federal judge put the wolf in Montana and Idaho back under federal Endangered Species Act protection, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could not delist the species there while keeping it protected in Wyoming. The ruling hasn’t swayed the governor’s position that wolves should be killed by any means at any time in 80 percent of the Wyoming. If the federal government wants to set the rules, it can pay the price, Freudenthal said. “I don’t want to spend any state money on it,” he said of wolf management. “Let the feds do it. Why should I pay state money to be a toady to the federal government?” Freudenthal said he would rather spend state money on improving wildlife habitat...more