JoseCuervo
New member
Make sure all you out of state guys read the part carefully where they talk about all the Elk in Idaho are gone, as the wolves ate them all. I suggest you look at Montana or Arizona for tags if you want to kill Elk. Idaho is all gone.... 
Wolves affect other wildlife ... Hunters claim wolves harm elk population
BOISE -- The word is out among the hunting community: Idaho has wolves.
For outfitters who depend on out-of-state hunters for business, that's not the kind of publicity the industry needs, said Grant Simonds, executive director of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association. Not surprisingly, Simonds' organization didn't welcome wolves back to Idaho 10 years ago.
"Land-based outfitters have been concerned from day one," Simonds said. "Some outfitters believe some elk herds have been impacted by wolf predation."
Wolves are known to prey on elk, deer and other wildlife. In the years since reintroduction, concerns among hunters and outfitters have grown over the way wolves impact wildlife populations. Environmentalists hail the return of the wolf for restoring balance back into ecosystems; wolf opponents fear that without proper management, wolves will severely diminish elk and deer populations and, in turn, harm the businesses and individuals who rely on those populations to be healthy.
Simonds did not cite a specific incident in which wolf preying on elk negatively impacted an outfitter's business. Hunters from out of state, he said, ask Idaho outfitters how much wolves have impacted their specific area.
"There is that stigma to overcome," Simonds said.
Similar to many livestock producers, Simonds stresses management as the best means to living with and tolerating wolves in Idaho.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Idaho hunters and outfitters worry that wolves may negatively impact elk and other wildlife populations in the state.
"IOGA has supported state management," he said. "We supported that at the state Legislature. We're very much interested in the day that wolves will be delisted in Idaho."
Perhaps the killing of wolves who prey on elk remains more controversial than does eliminating wolves who kill livestock. Even experts dispute whether wolves significantly impact elk herds to the point that eliminating wolves would be beneficial.
The population of wildlife fluctuates normally, said Curt Mack, wolf recovery leader for the Nez Perce Tribe. A variety of factors have an effect on these populations -- disease, habitat changes, winter severity, hunting and predation.
"How are you supposed to figure in this tiny little piece?" Mack said. "It's very difficult for us to tell the specific effect of wolves on elk.
"Certainly, wolves are going to have an effect on their prey populations," he said. "So far, we haven't seen an immediate effect. Wolves have become a great scapegoat for hunters not getting their elk."
However, that's not what the outfitters want you to believe, says Western Watersheds' Jon Marvel. Instead, Marvel said, they will tell you that there aren't any elk left.
"They're all dead inside a 500 pound wolf," he says, laughing.
If wolves are such effective killing machines, they already would have affected other wildlife populations, he said.
"It's not just this constant killing field out there," Marvel said. "These other animals co-evolve. I just don't think the fears of these hunting groups is born out by reality. These animals interact in ways that maybe we don't understand in being prey and predators."
Wolves could be killed for having a negative impact on an elk herd if an amendment to the Endangered Species Act -- the 10(j) proposal -- is approved, said James Caswell of Idaho's Office of Species Conservation. However, Caswell said, the rule would not be applied without careful consideration.
"You've got to have some basis for this conclusion," Caswell said. "There's a bunch of things that happen before the decision to eliminate a wolf is made."
Idahoans also need to keep the impact of elk feeding grounds in perspective, Mack said. When humans provide food for elk at winter feeding grounds, wolves will prey on the unnatural concentration of elk, he said.
"That is so artificial," he said. "You don't see that in nature. We're kind of creating this artificial site where there's an unnatural concentration of elk that can't go anywhere. They (the wolves) see this whole freezer full of food."
Although hunters have complained about declining elk numbers due to wolves, one Stanley resident, Bill Leavell, dismisses their claims. Leavell manages the Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch in the Sawtooth Valley.
"I don't think it's had any effect up here," he said. "I tend to think there's much ado about nothing here."
However, Leavell suspects that elk have changed their habits as a result of wolves in the area. Elk typically can be found grazing on a meadow on the ranch. Hot water running underground keeps the meadow cleared of snow even in winter. Since wolf reintroduction, Leavell said, elk herds on the meadow tend to be smaller and stay for shorter periods of time.
While elk behavior has adapted to wolves' presence, hunter behavior has not, Leavell said. Hunters haven't quite figured out habit changes by elk over the years. Instead, sportsmen continue to hunt elk in much the same manner they have for countless years.
"I think what hasn't changed is the hunters," Leavell said. "I can say that as an elk hunter."
