LANDER - The newly drafted regulations for managing wolves in Wyoming, once they've been removed from the federal Endangered Species list - are fine, as far as regulations go, but where's the money going to come from to pay for the costly program?

That was a sentiment echoed by several of the attendees at a Wyoming Game and Fish Department meeting here Tuesday evening, where Scot Talbott, assistant division chief of wildlife, presented two new proposed rules for statewide wolf management.

Game and Fish drafted the new rules to fulfill statutes established in House Bill 213, in the 2007 state legislative session, which require the department to designate gray wolves in the northwest part of the state as trophy game animals, and to use "aggressive" methods for managing the population.

The bill also requires the department to establish a program for compensating landowners and livestock owners for damage caused by wolves, including predation.

Once wolves are delisted, wolves living outside of the designated northwest region will be considered predators, and managed the same way coyotes and mountain lions are. People encountering wolves outside of the trophy game management area would be able to kill wolves without restrictions, as long as they report the gender, time and location of the kill to Game and Fish.

About 70 ranchers, hunters, outdoors enthusiasts and concerned citizens, many clad in cowboy hats and boots, gathered Tuesday evening to learn about the new draft regulations. The informational meeting was one of a series taking place throughout the state this week, with four more planned for Wednesday and Thursday in Jackson, Sheridan, Casper and Cody.

Designating gray wolves as trophy game animals in the northwest part of the state would loosen restrictions on killing wolves outside of Yellowstone National Park and allow for "shoot on sight" permits to be provided to landowners, if the wolves have repeatedly "harassed, injured, maimed or killed livestock or domesticated animals."

The rule would also authorize hunting of the canines, including aerial hunting, by Game and Fish employees in areas of "chronic wolf predation" and where the department determines "a wild ungulate herd may be experiencing unacceptable impacts or when wolf-wild ungulate conflict occur at any state-operated feedground."

Wyoming native and Lander resident Mike Ockinga, said if he had his way there wouldn't be a single wolf living in the state. But if it's important to people outside Wyoming that the state have wolves, then they should be willing to pay for managing them.

"Wolves are in Wyoming because outside people, U.S. Senators from back East, wanted them in Wyoming - not Wyoming people," Ockinga said. "Why should we be responsible for footing the whole bill?"

Although no one knows yet how much the wolf management program will cost once implemented, it could be a "very expensive program," most likely costing millions of dollars per year, Talbott said.

Those costs would include installing and maintaining radio collars for tracking the predators, many of which have a price tag of about $4,000 each, and helicopter rides for aerial spotting and hunting that cost about $700 per hour.

After the meeting was over, rancher John Griffin echoed Ockinga's point.

"I think they've got a lot of ideas that they don't have a clue where the money's going to come from," said Griffin, who believes the federal government should pay for the program because "they're the ones that put the wolves here in the first place." He doesn't expect, however, there will be much aid for the program coming in from the federal government.

"The people impacted the most are always the ones that end up paying for it," Griffin said.

Lander resident Nick Scribner said he came out to the meeting just to get up to speed on the new regulations. A self-described avid hunter, who mostly hunts big game for meat, Scribner said he's happy wolves are going to be delisted and he believes Wyoming will do a better job of managing the animal.

"I think it's good that the state's going to have some control," Scribner said.

Thomas Bryan of Cheyenne was in the area for a job interview, and stopped into the meeting as an interested citizen. He said in-state wolf management seems like the reasonable approach to reaching a compromise between hunters, ranchers, conservationists and environmentalists.

While most people seem to fall on one side of the issue or the other, he said - Bryan said he can see merits to arguments from both sides.

"I'm an avid backpacker, me and my dogs," he said. "I'm not a hunter or a rancher, but I can see where they're coming from. But I can also see the other side. You've got to keep an open mind."