Wyoming Independent gubernatorial candidate Don Wills says the state's wolf hunt should continue as planned. Wills recently called on the current governor and one of his upcoming election opponents, Republican Matt Mead, to defy the September federal court ruling that returned the wolves to federal protection and forbade the hunt.
"The wolf tags have been issued, and hunters had already made plans to start their hunts," Wills said, according to the Billings Gazette. "The disruption to hunters, outfitters and the cost to Wyoming Game and Fish to refund hunting permits caused by a single black-robed judge who sits in Washington, D.C., and has probably never been in Wyoming is outrageous and should be defied by Wyoming."
The single black-robed judge is U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson. After Wyoming officials -- backed by the support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- decided the improved health of wolf populations warranted the return of the state's annual trophy hunt, environmental groups sued and the case made its way to Jackson. Last month, she rejected the state's new wolf management plan, ruling the hunt be called off and federal protections offered by the Endangered Species Act be reinstated. Last week, the case returned on appeal; Jackson declined to change her mind.
"If you think this story sounds familiar, that's because you've heard it numerous times before," Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of Defenders of Wildlife, one of the plaintiffs, wrote in the Huffington Post this week. "This is now the fifth time the Service has attempted to weaken or remove federal protections for a population of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies. And it's the fifth time the agency has lost in federal court, wasting taxpayer dollars and valuable time and energy that could have been spent on plans that would actually help wolf recovery."
But Wills, whose campaign has repeatedly decried government waste and overreach, thinks support of federal wildlife officials is as good an excuse as any to ignore Judge Jackson.
"Colorado did just that in the legalization of pot," Mills said. "It's a federal crime to commercially grow pot, and the state of Colorado defied the federal laws and it all worked out fine."
Current Wyoming governor, Matt Mead, isn't a fan of the federal decision either, but he says Mills' rhetoric isn't helpful.
"Wyoming has successfully negotiated against federal overreach, and when necessary we have gone to court," Mead said in a statement. "I do not advocate taking an extreme stand, doomed to failure, which undermines Wyoming's interests instead of moving Wyoming forward."