Officials say a plan to hunt 25 wolves in northwest Wyoming will let researchers gauge impacts to the animals without risking another endangered species listing.

“What we’re tying to do is start off slowly,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department wolf program coordinator Mike Jimenez said at a meeting Wednesday in Jackson. “What we definitely want to avoid is the population going down. Then we’d have to deal with listing again.”

Roughly 30 people, including environmentalists and outfitters, attended the meeting.

Jimenez said the season was set using a formula that tries to limit the number of wolves killed to no more than 35 percent of the state’s wolf population. The formula takes into account hunting, control actions, illegal harvest and natural deaths. A mortality of 30 percent would likely keep the population stable, he said.

At the end of 2007, officials estimated a population of roughly 188 wolves in Wyoming outside Yellowstone National Park. In the state’s management plan, which took effect after wolves lost protection under the Endangered Species Act, officials committed to maintaining a population of 15 breeding pairs and 150 wolves in the northwest corner of the state, including Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. Seven of those breeding pairs must exist outside the park boundaries. About 359 wolves currently reside in Wyoming.

Jimenez said the hunting season must be conservative because researchers aren’t sure how wolves will respond to hunting pressure.

“We know a lot about wolves,” he said. “But when you hunt them, we don’t know a lot about wolves.”

Jimenez said researchers will monitor the state’s roughly 16 packs using radio and global positioning system collars.

The proposal divides northwest Wyoming into four hunting areas. Around Jackson Hole, Area 3, or the Gros Ventre area, would encompass the regions south and west of Togwotee Pass, north of Hoback Canyon and west to Idaho. Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park and the National Elk Refuge would be excluded. Jimenez said the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway is excluded from hunting this season.

The plan proposes killing five wolves in the Gros Ventre hunt unit between Oct. 1 and Nov. 15. A five-wolf quota is also proposed for the Green River and Sunlight hunt units, where hunting would run through Nov. 30.

Ten wolves could be shot in the Franc’s Peak hunt unit, the state’s largest, which would stretch from Cody to Dubois and encompass the Teton and Washakie wilderness areas of Bridger-Teton and Shoshone national forests. Hunting there also would run from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30.

The regulations would allow electronic wolf calls, but baiting wolves would be allowed only on private property. During the season, hunters who kill wolves would be required to call Game and Fish within 24 hours after killing an animal and must present evidence of the kill to a Game and Fish office within five days.

Outfitter B.J. Hill said he was concerned that the quotas set in each hunt area focus too much on livestock depredations and not enough on preventing losses to big game, especially in the Gros Ventre drainage, where cow-calf ratios have declined in recent years.

“The ungulates are starting to take a back slide again,” he said. 

South Park resident Julia Heileson said she doesn’t support hunting wolves.

“I’m part of a lot of people in Jackson Hole who really value the wildlife,” she said, drawing strong reactions from some outfitters who didn’t like the implication that they don’t value wildlife.

Outfitter Lynn Madsen, who runs a hunting camp at Hawks Rest in the Teton Wilderness, defended hunters and wolf hunting.

“This isn’t a job,” he said. “It’s a way of life for us. We’re not asking you to eradicate the wolves. If you manage one population, you have to manage them all.” 

Franz Camenzind, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, said illegal wolf kills should count toward the hunting quota in each hunt area. Such a move would pit legitimate hunters against poachers and could reduce illegal take.

“I think it would help everybody police themselves,” he said.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission will vote on the wolf hunting regulations at a meeting July 30 through Aug. 1 in Dubois.

Environmental groups are seeking an injunction to block wolf hunting in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. If granted, the injunction would be in effect while a California court hears arguments about whether the wolf’s recovery is threatened by its recent removal from federal protection.

A decision on the injunction from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula, Mont., is expected in days, Jimenez said.