I’m super-busy trying to land a job in this impossible economy, but I had to take time out for my wolf friends today. They have unfortunately been on the receiving end of a backlash at their very moderate recovery. It’s not easy co-existing with predators, and currently, things are in real flux.
Donate to help the wolves here.
Read on for a discussion I had on another website, copied here to preserve it…
from the mongabay website…
Idaho to allow 25 percent of its wolf population to be killed in one season
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
August 19, 2009
The state of Idaho has set a quota of 220 individuals for the wolf hunting season which begins on September 1st. If the quota a quarter of Idaho’s estimated 880 wolves will be killed.
The 220 quota is actually a reduction from an earlier proposal that called for a quota of 430 wolves, almost half the state’s population. In contrast, Montana has set its quota for the year at 75 wolves, approximately 15 percent of its population.
The environmental group, Defenders of Wildlife has stated that it will seek an injunction to stop the hunt, arguing that the numbers are unsustainable. This has angered some wildlife managers.
“It’s time for some environmental groups to abide by their previous promises,” said Fish and Game Commission Chairman Wayne Wright, from Twin Falls, Idaho. “It’s time for our judicial system to put science before partisan ideology. Neither our sportsmen, our ranchers or our elk herds can wait any longer. It’s time.” Wolves were removed from the Endangered Species Act in Montana and Idaho last May in a controversial decision by Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar.
“It is really astonishing that you could have an animal on the endangered species list at one point, and a bare five months later they’re being hunted,” Stephen Augustine of the Northern Idaho Wolf Alliance told the Spokane Spokesman-Review . “To my knowledge there isn’t another animal that has had this happen to them.”
comment from TLM…
The wolf population has been growing more than 25% per year, and there are now about 1000 wolves in Idaho after this springs puppies were born. The pack of 9 that lives near our town had 4 puppies last year and 5 this year.
All the prime habitat in the wilderness and roadless areas are saturated, the wolves are expanding down out of the mountains into marginal habitat and the wildland urban interface. Wolves belong in the wilderness, but having them in our towns is not good for them. They become habituated, conflicts arise, pets and wolves end up dead.
There has been genetic connectivity between Yellowstone and Central Idaho, and a huge dispersal – wolves have traveled to the surrounding states and formed new packs. Maps of the 88 packs in Idaho cover more than 50% of the state. There isn’t room for 2000 wolves here – each pack needs a large territory to support themselves.
Idaho Fish & Game has written a letter to each of the other 49 states offering them some of our wolves. Not one state took them up on the offer. Why is that? If you want to save a family of wolves, get your state to adopt some. Please make an effort to educate yourselves instead of reacting to ‘sound bites’ from the media. Think about what it would be like to have wolves running around YOUR residential neighborhood.
TLM
reply from me…
TLM, I watched the Florida panther go extinct a day at a time, it was the most heartbreaking experience of my life. As a grade schooler, I saw one in person at my school. Now they have been cross-bred with the Texas panther to preserve their gene pool as best as possible.
You’re absolutely right, predators need lots of room – and there’s no real long-term hope for them, unless we make some radical concessions. Issuing 70000 or so wolf hunting permits, killing 25% in one year, is not going to be a part of that solution. With the Florida panther, 700,000 acres of preserve had been created, and I-75 has been fenced off with wildlife crossing provided. Large preserves are the only real long-term solution. Do we have the collective spine to pull it off? I’m afraid to say that based on my experience, I don’t have much faith in humanity. But I have to hope.
