MURDER IN THE AIR: U.S. Feds probed illegal airborne wolf, coyote hunt by county board members, refused to prosecute
According to documents from a federal law enforcement investigation report, county board members themselves were getting in on the aerial shooting because it was 'a lot of fun'.
MIKE KOSHMRL: The tip came in by phone. The allegation: widespread disregard for the federal law prohibiting airborne hunting by civilians. The alleged perpetrators included members of three Wyoming county predator boards, their professional contractors and others who could best be described as thrill seekers…
The informant, who provided the nuanced details of an insider, claimed predator board members and their families were partaking in the aerial gunning, describing the activity as some kind of recreational pursuit. “Everybody wants to shoot a wolf from a helicopter!” SI-1 told Stoinski, according to documents from a federal law enforcement investigation report…
The second informant (SI-2) echoed allegations that predator board members themselves were getting in on the aerial shooting because it was “a lot of fun”. SI-2 said he knew for a fact that members of the Lincoln County Predator Board including the president, [redacted], has been in the helicopter to shoot animals on Forest Service land,” the investigation documents read. Members of that board president’s family, the tipster said, had done the same…
Aerial gunning for predators remains routine business in Wyoming, a state where more than a million cattle and 300,000-plus sheep graze and where the vast majority of federal land is leased out to livestock producers.
Wildlife Services documents killing more than 6,000 coyotes per year on average, and aerial gunning by private individuals claims another 1,300 or so. That collective mortality, the federal agency maintains, does not have much of an impact on Wyoming’s overall coyote population, judged at 86,000 animals by a 2009 study.
Livestock producers say the ability to shoot coyotes from the sky is important to their bottom lines. Over a recent five-year period, Wildlife Services agents confirmed an average of 933 coyote-killed domestic sheep and cattle, primarily calves and lambs. All told, those losses cost Wyoming livestock producers about $125,000 annually, according to the federal agency’s calculations…
One year and three weeks after Stoinski first took the tipster’s phone call, the Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service and BLM’s law enforcement offices issued the warning letters to the predator boards and their contracted pilots.
“Specifically, the evidence collected during the investigation documents individuals that identified themselves as employees of Lincoln County Predator Management District killing predatory animals on federal lands with the aid of an aircraft,” their letter to the Lincoln County district said. The agents warned that future unsanctioned flights will be investigated, and violations referred to the U.S. attorney’s office…
The Lincoln, Sweetwater and Uinta predator board officials defended their actions, writing that, to the best of their knowledge, they were “in full compliance” with aerial hunting requirements imposed by the state of Wyoming. Participating pilots and gunners were licensed by the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, they wrote, and counties were reporting their lethal actions to Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board, which rounds it all up into an annual report.
“It is our understanding that the state then compiles the information collected and submits an annual report to the Department of the Interior as required in the Airborne Hunting Act,” their letter said.
But the county boards mistook state consent for clearance from the federal agencies. The authorization to operate over federal lands evaporated when they ended or scaled back their contracts with Wildlife Services, the predator districts would soon learn.
Federal land managers who administer the disputed gunning grounds told the predator boards as much in a letter one month later. “You have noted that the counties and their agents carrying out [aerial gunning] activities were acting in accordance with Wyoming state statutes,” Lori Armstrong, a former BLM Deputy State Director, wrote to the predator boards. “Wyoming state statutes cannot, of themselves, authorize [aerial gunning] activities on public lands”…
Wildlife Services and the Wyoming Department of Agriculture recently took steps to remedy this dilemma. On Jan. 13, the state director at Wildlife Services, Foster, signed off on a new cooperative agreement that pledges the federal agency will annually include county predator district actions on bureau property in its own annual work plan with the BLM. SOURCE…
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