LAST EDITED ON Aug-28-17 AT 02:27PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Aug-28-17 AT 02:26?PM (MST)
AYC, if you don't think the reintroduction/wolf recovery program is purely an agenda driven by money and social/emotional legislation, then you are as naive as my lingerie model wife that thinks every man she meets just wants to be her "friend".
Additionally, as a hunter and/or conservationist, you should realize the landscape can only handle so many predators. The one stupidly obvious thing that often gets left out of the wolf/predator argument is MAN. Just look at the amount of habitat we have removed through development over the last 100 years. I'm a homebuilder, I work in the industry. That doesn't mean I'm naive to the fact that thousands of acres of habitat are lost every year due to commercial and residential development. Development is going to happen, there's no if/ands/buts about it. So when you combine the impact man has on wildlife (and I'm not even talking about hunting) with an increase in predators, something is going to suffer (i.e. elk, deer, sheep, etc.)
When you speak about sustainable populations, the state wildlife agencies are currently doing what they think is necessary to have sustainable populations. However, when you introduce or increase predator populations everything changes.
The state of New Mexico issued 21,862 elk tags in this years draw. If you take the objective wolf population of 320 and multiply it by the amount of elk that studies show wolves kill (1.8 elk per wolf per month), then the amount of elk annually killed by wolves would be 6,912. That's now 6,912 less elk the wildlife agencies have to account for when issuing tags. So simple math says there would need to be a reduction in elk tags of a minimum of 30% to stay at the same "sustainable population" levels we are at today. (And yes, I'm aware harvest percentages, private land tags, gray wolf vs. mexican wolf, and other things are factors, but I'm just keeping it simple here).
The point is, we are currently at "sustainable populations" for the most part. Introducing or increasing the predator population will significantly reduce the amount of opportunity for hunters if we try to maintain these same "sustainable populations". That is why hunters are (for the most part) anti-wolf. The bottom line is most people accept the predator/prey ratios as they are today. But when someone tries to tip the scales in favor of the predators, it changes the landscape and the ones that suffer the most are hunters and ranchers.