Wyoming Wolf Response: Clarification Made

In a letter to Senators Michael Enzi, John Barrasso, and Representative Cynthia Lummis the Boone and Crockett Club, Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, Safari Club International, and National Rifle Association clarified their position on the delisting of the gray wolf in all recovered wolf populations, including those in Wyoming’s northern Rocky Mountains.

March 17, 2011

Dear Senators Enzi and Barrasso and Representative Lummis:

In response to your letter dated March 11, 2011, regarding our statement on delisting the gray wolf, we regret any misunderstanding and appreciate the opportunity to clarify our position on this critical matter. Furthermore, we look forward to working closely with you and congressional delegations from other states with recovered wolf populations to ensure the interests of each state are respected and satisfied.

To clarify, we support delisting all recovered wolf populations, including those in Wyoming's northern Rocky Mountains. Attached is our official statement on this issue for your review.

Our ultimate goals are to completely delist recovered gray wolf populations and to return authority over wolf conservation to the states, which are better equipped to manage wildlife populations than the federal govermnent. We will support any legislative efforts which take us closer to complete delisting of recovered populations. Such an approach does not indicate our opposition to a comprehensive solution; to the contrary, it simply means that we need to move forward however we can in order to reach our ultimate goal.

We urge all Members of Congress to work together on a comprehensive solution in order to address this issue in a timely matter. Success will require a unified, bipmlisan approach by Members of Congress and we look forward to working with you to achieve that consensus.

Sincerely,

Jeff Crane

President

Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation

Ben Wallace

President

Boone and Crockett Club

Dr. Larry Rudolph

President

Safari Club International

James J. Baker

Director, Federal Affairs

National Rifle Association