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Author
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Topic: About time/hunt wolves in Idaho, anybody?
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted March 15, 2007 08:26 AM
Idahoans Eager to Thin Resurgent Gray Wolf Packs
By John Ritter, USA TODAY
(March 15) - Margaret Soulen measures the success of endangered gray wolves by an annual body count.
The first few years after wolves were returned to Idaho in 1995, her sheep losses were small - as recently as 2002, just one head. With the wolf population's remarkable growth, her losses soared: 330 sheep in 2004, 175 in 2005, 200 last year.
Soulen and her husband, Joe Hinson, who graze 9,000 sheep over nearly a half-million acres of backcountry, have hired more herders and bought more guard dogs. Herders have taken to sleeping among sheep bands to keep wolves away. When wolves are near, sheep get nervous and don't eat and gain weight as they should, Soulen says.
As one of the state's largest ranchers, Soulen has felt the wolves' impact as much as anyone. Yet her attitude about this top-rung predator is at odds with Idaho's anti-wolf image.
"I've always said we could live with some wolves, and we can," Soulen says. "But I would like to see the numbers reduced some."
The wolf debate has always been about numbers, never more so than now as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prepares to take wolves off the endangered species list here and in Montana by year's end.
Management Plans Approved
Taking gray wolves off the list would clear the way for legal hunting for the first time since they were eradicated in the West, mainly through deliberate poisoning, in the early 1900s. Idaho wants to reduce its 600 or more wolves by as much as 75%.
Federal protection for 4,000 wolves in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan ended in February, but those states have no plans to allow sport hunting.
The Idaho Legislature last month set a $9.75 fee to hunt wolves. In January, Republican Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter vowed, "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself."
Environmentalists were stunned. "I couldn't believe it. For him to say that sets the stage for the rules of engagement," says Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife, a group that has paid more than $700,000 to ranchers for livestock losses from wolves. "What I don't know is whether that attitude is a majority opinion or a very vocal minority."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved the wolf management plans of Idaho and Montana last year, a step toward taking the gray wolf off the endangered list, but rejected Wyoming's plan because it proposed all-out, year-round, shoot-on-sight hunting. "That kind of persecution is exactly what caused wolves to disappear," says Ed Bangs, the wildlife service's Western wolf recovery coordinator.
Until last year, Idaho had demanded that the federal government remove all its wolves. The state's new position is "wolves are here to stay, and we're going to manage them in perpetuity," says Steve Nadeau, a state Fish and Game Department biologist.
Idaho would allow wolf numbers to fall to as low as 15 packs, or about 150 animals, Nadeau says. That's above the federal minimum of 10 packs. There are 81 known packs in Idaho, according to the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Information System.
"There's no ecological or economic reason to keep numbers at those levels," says Suzanne Asha Stone, the Defenders of Wildlife's northern Rocky Mountain field representative. "When you manage at the very edge, you're always on the brink of seriously jeopardizing the population." The governor says the state should kill all but 100 wolves.
Groups such as the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition want wolves removed by any means necessary. So do some hunters, despite no evidence that wolves depress elk and deer populations statewide, Nadeau says.
Hunting Wolves Isn't Easy
Other hunters say they can live with some wolves.
"It isn't just my state, it's everybody's state who lives here," says Laytn Montgomery, a hunter from Buhl. "If we're going to have wolves, they should be managed, hunting opened up, keep everybody happy."
Steve Whitaker, who lives outside Meridian, says, "Get them thinned down a bit, because they're killing too much game."
Dan Cantrell of McCall, an Idaho hunter for 42 years, says wolves "have definitely had an impact. It takes a lot of groceries to feed 600 wolves, a lot of deer and elk." He doubts that sport hunting would dent the population much. "I don't think you could hurt them, I really don't," he says.
Wolves won't be easy to hunt, Nadeau says. They're nocturnal, smart and likely to become even more elusive once hunters take aim. They're also capable breeders - just to keep wolf numbers where they are, at least 30% of the population would have to be killed annually, Nadeau says.
The state issued a permit to eliminate problem wolves every year "and in all that time we've never shot one," Soulen says. Bears and cougars kill a few sheep, but coyotes cause the biggest losses, an average of 400 lambs a year, Soulen says.
Ron and Bob Shirts reluctantly sold off half their cattle operation, 350 head they grazed in the mountains, after wolves killed 24 cows and 16 calves last year, a loss of almost $33,000.
"We can't risk what might happen in another year," Ron Shirts says. "Wolves dealt a crippling blow to our livelihood." Because his cows grazed on 50,000 acres, "it's nearly impossible to find carcasses fresh enough to be confirmed as wolf kills," Shirts says.
The Shirts brothers have received no reimbursement. "The government shoves wolves down our throats, but the burden of proof that they're killing our animals is on us," Ron Shirts says. "Even with de-listing, I don't have much faith that we're going to be able to control them."
03/15/2007 07:02
Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31450 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Buffalobob
Knows what it's all about
Member # 825
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posted March 15, 2007 12:18 PM
Well, I have already recieved my elk, deer and bear tags for Idaho. I guess I could spring another $200 for one more tag.
Posts: 90 | From: Potomac River | Registered: Mar 2006
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Buffalobob
Knows what it's all about
Member # 825
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posted March 15, 2007 12:21 PM
Posts: 90 | From: Potomac River | Registered: Mar 2006
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Wiley E
Knows what it's all about
Member # 108
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posted March 15, 2007 04:39 PM
The Defenders of Wildlife wolf damage reimbursement program is an absolute joke. All they pay for is the confirmed losses. If you have a calf that comes up missing and is not found to confirm the loss there is no payment. There is no payment for additional herders and there is no payment for weight losses due to sheep being run by wolves or sheep that are nervous instead of grazing in the presence of wolves. These wolves need to be thinned out.
MAN EATS FIRST!
~SH~
[ March 15, 2007, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: Wiley E ]
Posts: 853 | From: Kadoka, S.D | Registered: Feb 2003
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onecoyote
Knows what it's all about
Member # 129
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posted March 16, 2007 08:47 AM
Simple as it sounds "MAN EATS FIRST" is the best I've ever heard it said. What ever competes with man for food, loses.
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Great minds discuss ideas.....Average minds discuss events.....Small minds discuss people.....Eleanor Roosevelt.
Posts: 893 | From: Walker Lake Nevada. | Registered: Feb 2003
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Bryan J
Cap and Trade Weenie
Member # 106
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posted March 16, 2007 10:23 AM
I would much rather see sportsmen have a shot at them first, then when needed the government remove the specific problems. I think that there are guys out there who could kill a wolf every year if they had a tag but I don’t think that guy is the average elk hunter who will be scrambling for tags as soon as they become available.
I like the idea of not having to jump through a bunch of hoops and travel a great distance for the opportunity. I hate the idea of that opportunity coming at the expense of someone’s livelihood.
Posts: 599 | From: Utah | Registered: Feb 2003
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