“This is far from over.”

So said Rep. Kermit Brown (R-Laramie) Wednesday of Wyoming’s struggle with the federal government over management of wolves reintroduced in the state by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

But it’s over for this legislative session.

After hours of testimony and debate on five different wolf bills, the House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife, and Cultural Resources Committee reported out only one (HB 32), which would continue to classify wolves as predators in much of the state but made other concessions to courts and federal agencies, including an effort to keep interstate routes open so diverse wolf populations can breed. (As Brown said: “We might interfere with a wolf that’s on its way to a genetic connectivity event.”)

Some legislators still wanted to make a point of defying the federal approach to wolf management. Others, led by Rep. Keith Ginghery (R-Jackson), wanted to end the endless brouhaha by passing a bill that largely gave the feds and the courts what they wanted, especially trophy game status for wolves statewide. In the end, though, solons seemed to conclude that it would be easier to shoot a wolf on the run than hit the moving target of federal wolf policy, especially with a new administration.

Brown, who has emerged as the leading spokesman for the legislature on wolf issues, said he had given up the thought that Wyoming could “lead the parade” on wolf management, because he couldn’t get constituent groups – from ranchers to wildlife advocates – to reconcile. For instance, there was no clarity on when ranchers would be allowed to shoot a wolf in defending livestock: “Biting is too high a threshold, even chasing is to high a threshold, but just hanging around is too low a threshold.”

So Brown urged the House to defeat the bill he’d championed, and they did, soundly. Wyoming’s current management plan – which was first supported and then rejected by FWS, and negated by a federal judge in Montana – remains in place but inoperative, and the FWS is in charge.

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A massive water development proposal for the Gillette area is quietly trickling through the legislature. The city’s massive population growth – from 19,000 population in 2000 to 31,000 residents in 2009 – and its location on the dry high plains are converging into a major drinking water shortage in the near future. The proposed solution is a 42-inch pipeline from a cluster of Madison Formation wells to be drilled north of Moorcroft. And the pricetag is $226 million.

That’s a chunk of change in a year when the state’s budget surpluses are shrinking, though the down payment this year is smaller. Two young members of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne) and Rep. Seth Carson (D-Laramie) raised questions about the state making a long-term commitment to cover 67 percent of the cost. It was noted that while other areas of the state struggle to fund smaller water projects or impose conservation, Campbell County is building recreation centers and big new firehouses, and then coming to the state to fund this big project. Carson did some math and figured this was an investment of about $7,000 per resident in Gillette.

Mike Purcell, head of the state Water Development Commission, admitted the Gillette Madision Pipeline Project was “a big gulp”; it requires a fat pipe traveling 42 miles and there is no way to do it cheaply in an area with no nearby rivers or mountains to provide water.

This year’s bill will provide only $16 million of the total cost, and the funds would be pulled from the budget reserve account. That will cover design, rights-of-way procurement, and groundwater exploration. The state would also loan the City of Gillette $5.5 million at 4 percent for 30 years so it could make it’s 33 percent match.

But that’s just the first installment on a project that would eventually cost the state at least $140 million. Chances of passage in these belt-tightening times? Well, it’s passed the Senate and came out of the House Ag committee by a unanimous vote this morning. And, the sponsor is Senate President John Hines (R-Gillette).