
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994                    TAG: 9406240529 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B4    EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA  
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940624                                 LENGTH: Medium

MEASURE WOULD ALLOW PROPERTY OWNERS TO KILL RED WOLVES

{LEAD} Support is growing in the state legislature for a proposal that would allow some eastern North Carolina residents to kill red wolves that wander onto their property.

``There is overwhelming support for my bill,'' said Rep. Zeno Edwards, R-Beaufort, in an interview after a House committee meeting on the bill, which Edwards once feared was dead.

{REST} The bill was sidetracked for about two weeks in the House Rules Committee, a move that Edwards feared would kill the bill, before it was referred to the House Agriculture Committee.

Edwards' bill would allow landowners in Hyde County to trap and kill red wolves if the landowner has asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the wolves and if the landowner notifies that agency within 48 hours of an animal being trapped and killed.

The House Agriculture Committee discussed the bill earlier this week but postponed action on it after Barbara Riley, its legislative counsel, said that Edwards' bill is unconstitutional and would violate the federal Endangered Species Act. That committee is scheduled to continue debating the bill next Tuesday.

Rep. Vernon James, D-Pasquotank, chairman of the agriculture committee, said in an interview Thursday in Raleigh that he hopes to work out a compromise that would prevent the state from adopting a law that would confuse landowners and be unconstit-utional.

James said he will press for a version of the bill that would ask Congress to consider changes in Fish and Wildlife Service programs to address landowners' concerns.

But Edwards said he would oppose such a move. ``That would be no real help to me or to the people of Hyde County,'' Edwards said.

At issue in Hyde County is a group of about 15 wolves which generally remain north of Lake Mattamuskeet near Fairfield, about a third of the total of 40 to 50 red wolves that have been released in four counties - Dare, Hyde, Washington and Tyrrell - by the federal government.

But, according to Troy Mayo, chairman of the Hyde County Board of Commissioners, instead of remaining on refuge land, the wolves have wandered onto private lands in the county. They apparently have killed a herd of goats, killed and frightened hunting dogs and apparently have wandered onto at least one back porch in the county, Mayo said.

``Fish and Wildlife has not lived up to its part of the bargain,'' Edwards said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists have said these fears are unfounded because the release of red wolves in eastern North Carolina has been designated as experimental by the Fish and Wildlife Service. This means that landowners are not subject to the same restrictions as they would be with other endangered species.

While the red wolf once roamed widely throughout the southeastern marshes and forests, by 1980 the red wolf was declared extinct in the wild and survived largely through captive breeding programs sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Locally, the red wolf program began in 1986 on what was then the Alligator National Wildlife Refuge.

While the bill currently covers only Hyde County, it is expected to be amended soon to include Washington County, according to Rep. William T. Culpepper III, D-Chowan. Culpepper said he plans to add Washington County to the bill at the request of that county's board of commissioners.

{KEYWORDS} ENDANGERED SPECIES RED WOLF RED WOLVES

by CNB