Page 32 - Wyoming's Grizzly Harvest - The Story the State Wants to Bury with the Bears

Wyoming’s Grizzly Harvest “I have no perspective on it,” said Chris Servheen, when asked about Ellsbury’s case, a surprising stance from the supposed fulcrum of grizzly recovery, who has championed WGFD as grizzly bear custodians for years. “I don’t know him,” he continued. “He works for Wyoming Game and Fish and it’s up to his superiors. We don’t get into their stuff. The guy made a mistake, but he owned up to it right away.” Servheen insisted that he “didn’t have anything to do” with prosecutorial decisions related to Ellsbury. “They never asked my advice,” said FWS’s Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator, despite the fact that FWS’s SA Rippeto conducted the investigation with Wyoming’s Scott Browning. “I have no idea how those decisions were made,” Servheen protested, and suggested that the US Attorney’s office was the body to question on the matter. “The FWS had the first option to decide on whether or not to prosecute Mr. Ellsbury,” said Brian Nesvik, WGFD’s Chief Game Warden. According to Nesvik, Servheen’s FWS colleagues declined to pursue a prosecution, while Park County did. “Wyoming Game and Fish had no choice in it,” was Nesvik’s view. Overburdened by cases and undermined by stretched resources, there is not a US Attorney’s office in the nation that would have moved forward with a prosecution under 32