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Idaho looks to remove wolves
by PERRY BACKUS - Ravalli Republic
In the next few weeks, the Idaho Fish and Game Department will ask the federal government for permission to remove close to 100 wolves on the Idaho lands bordering the Lolo National Forest.
On Monday, one of the Idaho biologists working on proposal spoke with about 60 people at the Ravalli County Fish and Game Association’s regular monthly meeting in Hamilton.
Wolves are definitely on the minds of Bitterroot Valley sportsmen.
“We are concerned about the number of wolves we have here in the upper Bitterroot,” said Dale Burk, a longtime Bitterroot sportsman and association member. “We have members who have spent as many as 30 years hunting here … and they’re reporting elk population levels that indicate catastrophic declines while seeing overwhelming numbers of wolf tracks.”
The state of Idaho is making its request to remove the wolves after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years studying the relationship between elk and wolves around the state, said George Pauley of the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Association Monday night.
“There is a very high burden of proof that you have to meet,” Pauley said.
While state biologists found more elk were killed by rifles than predators in some areas of Idaho, in the 2,300 square mile area designated as the Lolo Zone wolf predation was keeping elk numbers from rebounding, Pauley said.
Back in the late 1980s, the elk herd in the two districts numbered close to 16,000.
Declining elk calf survival in the early 1990s and a terrible winter in mid-decade dramatically reduced the herd size. Now, biologists believe that a healthy population of wolves is keeping it from rebounding, Pauley said.
The state’s elk plan suggests the area could sustain an elk herd of somewhere between 6,100 and 9,100 cow elk and 1,300 to 1,900 bulls. An extensive aerial survey in 2006 counted 3,254 cows and 979 bull elk.
The department estimates the wolf population at somewhere between 130 and 150 animals.
Pauley said the proposed plan calls for removing about 80 percent of wolves from the two game management areas. It also calls for retaining at least 25 wolves in the area.
The Idaho Fish and Game Department is in the process of developing its request to kill the wolves under the rewritten 10(j) provision of the Endangered Species Act that now allows states to remove wolves in areas where predation is keeping ungulate populations from meeting state objectives.
This is the second time Idaho officials have made the request to remove wolves from the Lolo Zone area using the 10(j) provision. When it made its first request, the provision required the state to show that wolves were the major cause of the herd’s decline.
Idaho Fish and Game Deputy Director Jim Unsworth said Tuesday the state’s request has finished a peer review and will soon undergo a review by the public before being sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Unsworth said the state has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to put together data documenting wolf caused elk mortality.
“It was a huge effort,” Unsworth said. “The data that we gathered was state-of-the-art … it was telemetry based. It’s the gold standard.”
The status of grey wolves under the Endangered Species Act is currently up in the air.
The Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf was delisted in the waning days of the Bush Administration. That order was rescinded six days later when the new Obama Administration ordered all federal agencies to halt new pending changes in regulations until it could review them.
Unsworth said the delay in delisting and subsequent state control of management of the gray wolf is creating its own backlash amongst sportsmen.
“Right from the beginning, the reintroduction of wolves has been a real divisive issue,” Unsworth said. “My big concern now is the delay in getting wolves delisted is tipping some sportsmen away from wolves who originally supported the reintroduction … they believe wolves ought to be managed just like any other game animal.”
Log on to RavalliRepublic.com to comment on this and other stories.
Editor Perry Backus can be reached at 363-3300 or [email protected].
by PERRY BACKUS - Ravalli Republic
In the next few weeks, the Idaho Fish and Game Department will ask the federal government for permission to remove close to 100 wolves on the Idaho lands bordering the Lolo National Forest.
On Monday, one of the Idaho biologists working on proposal spoke with about 60 people at the Ravalli County Fish and Game Association’s regular monthly meeting in Hamilton.
Wolves are definitely on the minds of Bitterroot Valley sportsmen.
“We are concerned about the number of wolves we have here in the upper Bitterroot,” said Dale Burk, a longtime Bitterroot sportsman and association member. “We have members who have spent as many as 30 years hunting here … and they’re reporting elk population levels that indicate catastrophic declines while seeing overwhelming numbers of wolf tracks.”
The state of Idaho is making its request to remove the wolves after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years studying the relationship between elk and wolves around the state, said George Pauley of the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Association Monday night.
“There is a very high burden of proof that you have to meet,” Pauley said.
While state biologists found more elk were killed by rifles than predators in some areas of Idaho, in the 2,300 square mile area designated as the Lolo Zone wolf predation was keeping elk numbers from rebounding, Pauley said.
Back in the late 1980s, the elk herd in the two districts numbered close to 16,000.
Declining elk calf survival in the early 1990s and a terrible winter in mid-decade dramatically reduced the herd size. Now, biologists believe that a healthy population of wolves is keeping it from rebounding, Pauley said.
The state’s elk plan suggests the area could sustain an elk herd of somewhere between 6,100 and 9,100 cow elk and 1,300 to 1,900 bulls. An extensive aerial survey in 2006 counted 3,254 cows and 979 bull elk.
The department estimates the wolf population at somewhere between 130 and 150 animals.
Pauley said the proposed plan calls for removing about 80 percent of wolves from the two game management areas. It also calls for retaining at least 25 wolves in the area.
The Idaho Fish and Game Department is in the process of developing its request to kill the wolves under the rewritten 10(j) provision of the Endangered Species Act that now allows states to remove wolves in areas where predation is keeping ungulate populations from meeting state objectives.
This is the second time Idaho officials have made the request to remove wolves from the Lolo Zone area using the 10(j) provision. When it made its first request, the provision required the state to show that wolves were the major cause of the herd’s decline.
Idaho Fish and Game Deputy Director Jim Unsworth said Tuesday the state’s request has finished a peer review and will soon undergo a review by the public before being sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Unsworth said the state has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to put together data documenting wolf caused elk mortality.
“It was a huge effort,” Unsworth said. “The data that we gathered was state-of-the-art … it was telemetry based. It’s the gold standard.”
The status of grey wolves under the Endangered Species Act is currently up in the air.
The Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf was delisted in the waning days of the Bush Administration. That order was rescinded six days later when the new Obama Administration ordered all federal agencies to halt new pending changes in regulations until it could review them.
Unsworth said the delay in delisting and subsequent state control of management of the gray wolf is creating its own backlash amongst sportsmen.
“Right from the beginning, the reintroduction of wolves has been a real divisive issue,” Unsworth said. “My big concern now is the delay in getting wolves delisted is tipping some sportsmen away from wolves who originally supported the reintroduction … they believe wolves ought to be managed just like any other game animal.”
Log on to RavalliRepublic.com to comment on this and other stories.
Editor Perry Backus can be reached at 363-3300 or [email protected].
