State, feds plan high-level talks on wolves; Barrasso lifts hold on nominee

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director nominee Daniel Ashe will visit Wyoming next week to work toward a deal on delisting Wyoming wolves. In a phone call with U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on Tuesday, Salazar committed to the visit to “aggressively pursue a solution” to the yearslong dispute over wolves, according to Barrasso’s office. In response, Barrasso announced that he will lift a monthlong hold on a Senate vote to confirm Ashe as Fish and Wildlife director. The Department of the Interior said Salazar and Ashe would visit with Gov. Matt Mead sometime next week, though further details weren’t available. Salazar met with Mead in late March about wolves, suggesting a deadline of a month to reach an agreement on a management plan. Following the meeting, Wyoming’s wolf negotiators sent a formal letter to Fish and Wildlife detailing the state’s position, said Mead spokesman Renny MacKay. But for the next 40 days or so, they got no reply. In the phone call Tuesday, Barrasso told Salazar he would lift his hold on Ashe’s nomination only if the two personally visited Wyoming to work on a wolf deal, said Barrasso spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore in an email...more

The enviros say if you nationalize something, such as a wildlife species, all decisions will be made on the best "science". Experience teaches us just the opposite. The only science involved is Political Science.