This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah's wolf management plan is going on the road this week, and the task force responsible for its creation is more than a little curious about how it will be received. Apprehensive, too.

After a year and a half of work, the 13-member wolf working group - a collection of wolf advocates, sportsmen and ranchers - has produced the draft of a plan that sought to strike a balance between competing interests. In other words, how to manage and protect the wolves as they migrate into Utah while preventing livestock depredation and compensating ranchers whose animals fall prey to wolves.

"The plan is pretty reasonable," says Kevin Bunnell, mammals program coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR). "There was a lot of give and take that took place. Everybody had issues. Not everybody is completely comfortable with it. But what we've got is a plan that's down the middle of the road. It's a pretty good compromise."

The wolf working group began meeting in 2003, after the Legislature passed a joint resolution authorizing the creation of a state wolf management plan as a prelude to the expected removal of wolves from the federal government's endangered species list - a move that would shift wolf oversight to the states.

It is anticipated that wolves will begin trickling into Utah during the coming years from the greater Yellowstone area, now home to more than 700 wolves. State wildlife officials doubt that wolves will settle here in large enough numbers to form packs, but there are those who oppose the return of the wolf in any numbers.

And with the 11th-hour defection of one of the wolf working group's members - Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife founder Don Peay - the proposal could face a rocky reception this week when it is unveiled at a series of Regional Advisory Council meetings around the state.

Peay dropped out of the wolf working group following an April 12 meeting in which he failed to muster support for additions to the plan. One would mandate compensation for hunting vendors who Peay argues will suffer because of big game killed by wolves. Another would allow private landowners to shoot wolves on sight; under the current plan they can only shoot if wolves are caught killing livestock.

Without those stipulations, Peay says it is impossible for his organization to support the plan. And he expects Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife members to come out in force at the meetings to oppose the current proposal.

"We're just asking that the items the Legislature requested be put into the plan," says Peay. The joint resolution "called for protection of the investments made by sportsmen and the hunting industry, which means we're not going to accept any plan that calls for a decrease in hunting opportunities."

Peay says he lobbied for his additions from the start, but Bunnell calls the Sportsmen leader's about-face "disingenuous," given his initial acceptance of the wolf group's ground rules - which called for 11 of 13 votes to pass any measure - and the group's long participation in the process.

"Many members of the group were very frustrated over the fact that he issued what amounted to an ultimatum at the final hour," says Bunnell.

Still, disagreements remain even within the group's current configuration. Ranchers and wolf advocates are still struggling to define what constitutes the harassment of livestock by wolves. And there remain disagreements over ranchers being able to shoot wolves on public lands where they own grazing permits.

"If a wolf is howling a quarter-mile away and sheep start milling about, is that harassment?" says Kirk Robinson, a spokesman for the Utah Wolf Forum and a wolf working group member. "Most in the working group think that's going too far, for the simple reason that it's public land, wolves are a native species and a healthy species for the ecosystem."

Nevertheless, those figure to be hot topics for the Regional Advisory Councils, which will forward their recommendations to the Utah Wildlife Board. And Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, which is influential in wildlife management circles, could bring even more pressure to bear.

But Bunnell is cautiously optimistic that the wolf plan will prevail in something close to its existing form.

"People need to understand that there are real advantages to having a plan similar to other states'," he says. "From the DWR standpoint, our main goal, and the goal of the Legislature, is to move management authority of wolves to the state as soon as possible. I think the plan we have right now will facilitate that transfer. It could be a long time in coming, but it will come sooner if we have a reasonable plan in place." jbaird@sltrib.com

Wolf management meeting schedule

* Tuesday: Beaver High School, 195 E. Center St., Beaver, 7 p.m.

* Wednesday: John Wesley Powell Museum, 885 E. Main St., Green River, 6:30 p.m.

* Thursday: Uintah Basin Applied Technology College, 1100 E. Lagoon St., Roosevelt, 6:30 p.m.

* May 24: Springville Junior High School, 165 S. 700 East, Springville, 6:30 p.m.

* May 25: Brigham City Community Center, 24 N. 300 West, Brigham City, 6 p.m.