THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 9, 1995 TAG: 9501090037
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
The survival of red wolves that roam eastern North Carolina could hinge on which set of laws - state or federal - is used to regulate the animals.
The battle between a new state law and the federal Endangered Species Act has gained national attention and could have implications for private landowners and conservation programs nationwide.
``It's really a mess,'' said Gary Henry, red wolf project coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Asheville.
The state law, which went into effect Jan. 1, allows landowners in Hyde and Washington counties in northeastern North Carolina to trap and kill red wolves on their property if the wolves appear to be a threat to humans or livestock.
While state legislators and lawyers representing landowners in the region maintain the law is valid, officials with the wildlife service say it is overridden by the federal Endangered Species Act and federal guidelines for killing red wolves. The federal officials say they will prosecute local landowners who kill red wolves without following federal guidelines.
Federal regulations allow a wolf to be killed only if it is attacking a person. ``Our position is that it (the state law) is unconstitutional,'' said Henry Friday. ``If somebody kills a red wolf, federal law enforcement officials are going to prosecute them.''
He says the state law puts landowners in jeopardy, but Raleigh lawyer E. Lawrence Davis disagrees.
``This law offers the landowner hope, . . . an avenue to proceed . . . where previously there was none,'' he said Friday. ``We question the legal authority of the federal government to say North Carolina cannot enact a law that pertains to private land within the state.''
Davis represents Hyde County landowners who led the charge for the new law, including Virginia Beach resident James E. Johnson Jr.
He began his efforts to keep wolves off his deer- and quail-gameland in North Carolina after he was threatened with prosecution for shooting a wolf in December 1993. He said at the time that he thought it was a coyote.
When the program was established, federal officials said residents would not be prosecuted for killing a red wolf on private property if the wolf were mistaken for another animal, and they have admitted they made a mistake in Johnson's case.
Johnson is on unsupervised probation following his conviction in Tyrrell County Superior Court on Dec. 21 for violating state Wildlife Resources Commission regulations for baiting and killing a black bear, according to the clerk of court's office in that county.
Meanwhile, an official with the Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation organization based in Washington, said Friday that the group hopes for a compromise.
``Obviously we're not in favor of this law,'' said Bob Ferris, a division director for the group, which has helped the wildlife service with wolf re-introduction programs nationwide. ``It does put at risk this whole experimental population designation.''
Since the law was enacted last July, two red wolves have been killed in eastern North Carolina - one in November in Washington County and another two weeks ago in Beaufort County near Pantego, where an adult red wolf wearing a tracking collar was apparently shot while it fed on a dead deer.
``To see another wolf shot is disturbing,'' said Bill Holman, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club's North Carolina chapter. ``We're frankly trying to figure out what to do now.''
At the heart of the issue is a group of about 15 wolves that roam the woods north of Lake Mattamuskeet near Fairfield in Hyde County, near Johnson's game land. The wolves are a portion of those introduced to the region since 1987 through a wildlife service program at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County.
By the end of 1988, about 10 red wolves had been released at the refuge and about 12 more were held in pens. The program expanded into the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge about two years ago after the federal government acquired about 120,000 acres of land in Hyde, Washington and Tyrrell counties to create the refuge.
Today, about 45 red wolves live in the northeastern region.
In recent years, Hyde County has not had good relations with the federal government, particularly the wildlife service. The county, for example, repeatedly has said that it has been shortchanged by revenue sharing - the reimbursement paid to counties instead of property taxes for federally owned land. And the county opposed Department of Interior efforts to create the Pocosin Lakes refuge and expand the red wolf program there.
In July 1994, the Hyde County Board of Commissioners asked the wildlife service to remove all red wolves from the county no later than Dec. 31, 1994.
Federal officials say the program, which costs about $360,000 a year, has wide public support. But Hyde County landowners disagree.
Troy Mayo, chairman of the Hyde County Board of Commissioners, says the wolves have wandered onto private lands in the county. They apparently have killed a herd of goats, killed and frightened hunting dogs and wandered onto at least one back porch in the county, Mayo said.
``This program does not have the support of the public which it directly impacts,'' said Mayo.
Wildlife service officials insist these claims rise from unfounded fears about the red wolves. They say red wolves are not responsible for most of the destruction attributed to them.
KEYWORDS: WOLVES NORTH CAROLINA by CNB