New West Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
The recent and controversial wolf-hunt announcements in Idaho, where officials plan to allow hunters to use electronic calls and traps, and the proposed doubling of the quota in Montana’s hunt are getting plenty of play throughout the Rockies.
But hunts in both states still await a decision by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Montana. He’ll be making a ruling this summer in the lawsuit brought by Defenders of Wildlife to restore wolves to endangered status in both states.
In t he meantime, Montana will start selling wolf tags on Aug. 23 with a quota of 186 wolves. Dates for Idaho have not been set.
With the number of wolves estimated at 835 in Idaho and 524 in Montana, wolf hunters and ranchers see greater opportunity to cull a threatening killer of livestock and Elk. Pro-wolf activists see those numbers as low and want wolves back on the Endangered Species Act.
The gulf between zero and 800 is wide, and there have been years of hot words exchanged between opponents.
A story in The Missoulian highlights the depth of the old controversy:
Some of the comments the commission received on the topic were “disgusting,” said Commissioner Shane Colton of Billings.
Many commissioners spoke about how misinformation and angry rhetoric seemed to infuse the comments, making a reasoned debate impossible.
Commissioner Ron Moody of Lewistown described many of the comments as expressing a “narrow, culturally bigoted point of view which expresses an inflexible ideological” contempt for people with other viewpoints.
Further reading:
Federal and State Documents on wolf recovery and sections of the Endangered Species Act
Idaho Fish and Game Hunting Page
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks hunting page
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Wolf website
Blogs
Pro-trapping Wolf Song News
Anti-trapping Howling for Justice
From the linked story:
“We made the (snare) loop too big, and it caught him around the waist, and he was able to chew it off,” he said. ”
Holy crap. Imagine the intense suffering that wolf went through before managing to chew the snare off. And imagine what he would have gone through if he had not managed to chew through the snare and instead just had that wire slowly cutting through his abdomen.
And they call this “sport.”
What about issuing BOW-only permits ,no electronic calling devices.This would provide a REAL HUNT for REAL HUNTERS and a sporting chance for the wolves.Can it be that the hunters want an easy prize or are they just sporting goods hunters?
These hunts are management tools that biologists depend on to achieve target populations. Last years hunts proved very difficult for hunters, as the quota wasn’t met. With this years quota increase, a more liberal season is necesssaey to achieve management objectives.
These hunts are rooted in management, and are not just for pleasure or the enjoyment of killing. Rural Montana and Idaho residents realize the necessity of management, but unfortunately it’s very difficult for outsider’s to understand the implications of overly-prolific wolves in an area where humans still depend on the land for survival.
It’s important to support the management of wolves through harvest, as such protection from Fish and Game agencies ensures long term viability of the species.
Lax: Did you actually read the article before commenting? It seems the whole point is that the hunt is NOT based on biology. As for predator control, that goes on with or w/o the hunt, in a much more targeted manner, so depradation is really not the rationale for the hunt either. Personally, and based on my impressions from talking with FWP reps, I think the rationale for the hunt is that it brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars to FWP while appeasing the perceptions of lazy hunters that wolves are somehow decimating elk.
The main purpose of the 2010 wolf hunt is to decrease the population of wolves in certain places. Claiming monetary gains as the driving force behind such hunts is partially right, but money isn’t why these hunts are being held. Biologists wish to see wolf numbers decreased in some areas to relieve pressure on suppressed elk populations and to alleviate higher than normal instances of livestock predation. This is the main reason for these wolf hunts.
There are so many people that refuse to believe that wolves can be managed like other predators. They wish to see wolves protected indefinitely with no lethal means of management, mainly because they are beautiful and majestic. Luckily these individuals aren’t in charge of implementing policy and aren’t entrusted with protecting our wildlife. Luckily.
Proper management is not only lucrative, it allows managers to ensure that all elements of the ecosystem are balanced. With the capability to perpetuate biological health comes the responsibility to do so. Wolves can be managed successfully if the environmental groups stoo sueing, and if managers are allowed to manage.
(Look at the success of wolf management in Alaska and Canada, where wolves dominate the countryside and hunting seasons are VERY liberal)
Always nice to see the “rightwing nut jobs” attacked in print by the compassionate, civil left. Intimidated any voters this week, Lefty? Lied about an issue in front of Congress? Gotten enough little old ladies to contribute to your “saving” of the earth this month? Taken any jet flights to rail against fossil fuels? Found any new noses to cut off to spite your face?
The issue with wolves is that they don’t have any science to fall back on. Just innate behavior. The dna thing. They kill to eat, kill for sport, and kill just because they are wolves. And they are compressed onto less land than they evolved with because the civil, compassionate left has to have coffee shops, mass transit, green buildings, and a place to crap. Descartes said it pretty well, about our civil, compassionate, environmental protectors, when he said you could doubt it all, including your own existence, but in doing so, you proved it. And by castigating all who provide the sustenance, raw material, rare earths, fuel and food, building materials and clothing, so that the left might find refuge in the universities, NGOs, all those places forgiven the duty to pay taxes to support the left wing government of entitlements and compassion, of give aways and spending money othe people’s money, the very foundation of government they don’t have to provide for, all that happens is the caring, compassionate left leaves ruin and waste in its path, as sure as those who they hate. Their hate proves their use of resources, their existence.
This deal of standing in your safe zone calling people names is that someday the safe zone won’t be there, and you will get your deserved poke in the snot locker. That seems to be the US fate across the world.
I am of the understanding that a duly elected government is in charge of wolves, and the wolves have defenders using tax payer money to protect their every right as a species. This is the government holding hunting seasons to control wolves, to create an atmosphere of not wanting to be social with humans (oh, forgive me Kevin Kostner), to keep wolves in their designated habitat (as a left leaning government feels it needs to do for humans), secure and with food aplenty. It is practical to have the schools open all summer to feed the children free meals. I don’t think it is a good idea to invite the wolves. They must fend for themselves, unlike humans. We are entitled, now from birth, to a free lunch paid for by someone else, or paid for by just printing money. Whatever works. Wolves will have to get better representation in Congress. Someone to earmark their nutritional needs in some obscure finance bill.
Meanwhile, in the mean forests, those places of cruelties we only see in humans in third world religious zealots, wolves need to learn to avoid humans, at all costs, because to not avoid them can be fatal. It has worked for the world for a long time. As long as wolves are not eating people or livestock, they are tolerated. Fear is what produces that kind of wolf. Fear of humans who can and will kill them. And it works for livestock and game. The wolves don’t get to kill them all. All because of human intervention. Say!!! Isn’t that how the wolves got here this time? Human intervention. Planted like petunias in the summer flower bed. Fertilized by legal protections and fed with public game and private livestock. Time to prune. Keep order in the garden of Eden. Even if it is not possible among humans.
“make a wild guess that many more elk are killed every year by people than by wolves. just a guess.”
Maybe in the past, but not in the very near future.
In SOME areas, wolves are decimating elk populations, that is an undisputable fact.
The wolves need to be managed, they were re-introduced by humans and need managed by humans.
If anyone would take the time to research wolf hunting, when a wolf, or a wolf pack starts being hunted, it/they become much more wary of humans, and will be seen less and less.
A quota of 186 does not mean 186 wolves will be killed by hunters.
“while appeasing the perceptions of lazy hunters that wolves are somehow decimating elk.”
Wolves are decimating a lot of elk herds.
Saying all hunters are lazy is equal to saying all on the left are communists.
Wolves are decimating a lot of elk herds.
This is what they are supposed to do. I mean do you have any idea about reality? They are only doing wrong in your eyes because all you care about is hunting an elk.