State Rep. Keith Gingery said he was cautiously pleased with how legislators and the public responded to changes he has proposed to how wolves would be managed in Wyoming.

Gingery (R-Jackson) in September unveiled significant changes to the state’s wolf plan, which he said he will propose during the next legislative session. He testified Friday in front of a meeting of the Legislature’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee in Riverton.

“If I took anything away from the meeting, it was that there are just a lot of people who are tired of the issue and want it resolved once and for all,” he said. “If that is a true sentiment, then let’s stop fighting in court and find a solution similar to Montana and Idaho. I think most people are getting to recognize fighting in court doesn’t get you anywhere.”

Gingery’s bill allows for all wolves to be classified as trophy game, meaning they could be shot only during regulated hunts, and it rewrites the state’s depredation control law to be similar to laws in Idaho and Montana. In Wyoming’s current plan, wolves are classified as trophy game in the northwest corner of the state. In the rest of the state, wolves can be killed at will by any means.

Gingery said the changes address criticism leveled at Wyoming’s plan from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Montana.

In a 40-page decision that halted the removal of endangered species protection for wolves, Molloy said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials “flip-flopped” on problems they found with Wyoming’s wolf management plan, including the state’s predator area.

Molloy said Wyoming’s plan also provides less protection for wolves in livestock and big-game conflicts than neighboring states.

Gingery said some legislators appeared to favor his approach while others seemed to want to continue to push Wyoming’s current plan in the federal court system.

“We’ve got a little way to go,” he said “I don’t think anyone is going to change their opinion until after [Election Day] because I don’t think anyone wants to go on the record as giving in.”

Rancher Charles Price urged the panel to stick to its guns and sue the federal government to accept the existing Wyoming plan and make them “do as was promised.”

Bud Betts, an outfitter in the Dubois area, said the panel should draft a new bill addressing the judge’s concerns, to show the “state