Idaho Anti Wolf Coalition

[misner5]

Bottom line...in the end, either wolves go or hunters go, I vote wolves. My money's going to this org. Check the link for their home page.

Anti-wolf group gears up for legal attack Aug. 11 Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho ? The Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition - formerly known as the Central-Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition - is trying to raise money to file a class-action lawsuit asking the federal government be ordered to eliminate wolves from Idaho.

Coalition founder Ron Gillett of Stanley told a news conference Sunday said that increasing wolf populations across the state are putting stress on wildlife, outfitters and ranchers.

"I am afraid we are about to experience the biggest wildlife disaster in Idaho's history," Gillett said. "Something must be done immediately, because the Canadian gray wolf population has exploded to the point of decimating Idaho's big game herds."

Coalition member Bill Campbell of Nampa said many outfitters and hunting guides are having a hard time with game shortages.

"That's what brought this whole thing together," said Campbell. "There are outfitters who are literally going out of business because hunters come in from all over to hunt big game and don't see anything. Then they never come back."

The lawsuit is meant to force federal officials to dispose of the animals through any means necessary.

"There's just no way that you can trap all those wolves. You can trap some, and that would be the humane thing to do. But the fact is they're a predator and you've got to deal with them one way or another," said Nampa rancher and coalition member Bill Campbell.

Organizations in Montana and Wyoming share that sentiment and the coalition hopes they will join in the lawsuit, said Campbell.

The Idaho group is gathering funds and plans to hold a dinner and auction Aug. 22 in Nampa. The coalition hopes to raise about $100,000 for its legal efforts by spring.

The coalition has not yet decided whether it will seek damages in the suit, but Gillett said it is a possibility that they will ask that the federal government and some environmental groups pay an unspecified amount for each wolf-killed elk.

The latest estimates of Idaho's wolf population place it around 284 and composed of about 19 packs. The numbers come from the 2002 gray wolf status report produced by the Nez Perce Tribe. Gillett's coalition estimates the population has reached between 700 and 1,000 animals.

 

[kingfish]

I'm a hunter and would be against the total elimination of wolves IN ANY STATE!!. The feds have to delist the wolf from the endangered species list and allow hunters to legally control their numbers. I hunt Idaho every year and have not expirienced the problems some of you apparently have. In areas that wolf populations are high they should allow hunters to take a wolf as part of their deer tag and licence fee. This issue doesn't have to be all or nothing. They do need to be controlled!!!!!

 

[misner5]

Kingfish, the way it looks to me you vote the wolf stays and the hunters go. True? I hope I'm wrong but the way it looks wolf delisting isn't going to happen soon if ever and by the time hunters relize it, it may be too late. You may not have seen wolf affects in your hunting area yet but ask someone who's hunted up around Stanley or Salmon how the wolves are doing. Someday those wolves are going to mate and have puppies. More than likely some of the pack will move to another location not already occupied. One place in Stanley I normally hunt was nothing but wolf tracks last year. Normally you would have seen elk in the normal openings...not even a track. Covered the entire basin and saw more wolf tracks than elk tracks.

Hunters need to start thinking outside the box in regards to wolves. Unless we do something and quick I believe our north western elk herds are in for serious trouble. Yellow stone is already down 50%+, 19,000 in 1995 to 8,000 in 2003, and wolves are the major reason. The pro wolfers DO NOT want wolves delisted and they're pouring money into litigation to attempt to make sure they're not. For the most part hunters are just standing by while the wolf population continues to EXPLODE and the ungalate population declines.

 

[misner5]

Here's some more good info...

Experts predict impact of wolves on elk, deer

MCCALL Idaho? Wolf experts told the Idaho Fish and Game Commission on Wednesday to expect major changes in Idaho?s elk and deer populations and hunting opportunities after wolves become established in the state.

Commissioners heard from four wildlife experts during their regular commission meeting.

Predictions from the scientists, three of whom have studied wolves, ranged from serious long-term declines in elk populations to short-term declines followed by a rebound as predator and prey populations reach equilibrium.

However, none claimed to have the definitive answer as to what will happen in Idaho.

?There?s a lot of murky water. We do have to take it all with a grain of salt,? F&G wildlife manager Jim Hayden from Coeur d?Alene said.

Hayden presented the commissioners with a computer model based on existing information about how wolves affect elk.

The likely scenario would be maintaining elk herds by managing hunters and predators other than wolves, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

?We have to compensate by managing those other species,? he said ?Adjusting populations of lions, bears and elk hunters will allow us to compensate for wolf impacts in some units.?

However, he also pointed out that predator reduction in some backcountry units is not feasible, and hunters would be the only variable that could realistically be managed in some areas.

Wolves were reintroduced into Idaho in 1995-96 and there are currently about 260 of them in the state.

Scientific research done by Kyran Kunkel of the Turner Endangered Species Fund probably most closely resembles Idaho?s situation.

In the early 1980s, wolves naturally recolonized in Northwest Montana near Glacier National Park, and scientists started studying them during that time.

Kunkel?s studies showed that wolves favored white-tailed deer over elk and moose, but would shift to those animals when they were available.

Kunkel?s work also showed that wolves and cougars co-existed in the study area, as well as did black and grizzly bears, and all preyed on deer, elk and moose.

After recolonization by wolves, deer and elk numbers declined and so did hunter success. At the same time, populations of deer, elk and hunter success improved elsewhere in Montana where there were no wolves.

His studies showed that as prey species declined, cougars eventually starved, wolves killed each other and had lower reproductive rates, and the prey animals consequently rebounded and hunter success improved.

Kunkel said that cycle would likely repeat itself in the long term, and there was probably little that could be done to change it. ?We shouldn't kid ourselves and think we can manage predator and prey for stable populations,? Kunkel said.

Dennis Murray of the University of Idaho explained that predators, including hunters, tend to target different ages of prey. Bears will prey on young, wolves prey on young and old, and cougars and hunters prefer mature animals.

Murray?s finding came from a three-year study of wolf and cougar kills during winter in eastern Idaho near Salmon. During that period, about three-quarters of wolf and cougar kills were elk, and about one quarter were deer.

The cumulative effect was elk herds declined in the area, but it was also noted they were declining before the wolves were reintroduced.

Murray said the Salmon-area study was a ?very small snapshot in time and space.? He encouraged commissioners to aggressively monitor elk population to try and determine what is happening to the elk in that area, which he said is more effective than trying to study wolves.

One scientist, Tom Bergerud from British Columbia, Canada, had more dire predictions about wolves. ?I predict that you're going to have major impacts from wolves in this state,? he said. ?I predict a major elk decline.?

He said he saw wolves repeatedly depress moose, caribou and elk populations while studying them throughout Canada, and in some cases they wiped out local populations of caribou.

?I've watches herd after herd (of caribou) go extinct across Canada,? he said . Bergerud said wolves will concentrate on one prey species until it is depressed, then move onto another when it was available.

He also said reducing wolf numbers led to increases in prey animals, but wolf reductions had to be done over a wide area and for long periods of time.

?As far as I'm concerned, wolves do not self regulate,? Bergerud said. ?I know it's pie in the sky, but you have to have management.?

 

[Chef]

I've talked to Tim about his attack. Very interesting story. He is the owner of Buffalo Bore Ammunition. BTW he shot the attacking wolf with a .45-70.

story here...
http://www.natureswolves.com/human/sundles_attack.htm

Chef
"I Love Animals...They're Delicious!"