Idaho F&G Announces Wolves Major Cause Of Elk Kills

Reports coming out of Northern Idaho say that Fish and Game Deputy Director Jim Unsworth is blaming the gray wolf as the main reason for a 13% per year reduction in cow elk in the Lolo Hunting Zone. Another F&G biologist, George Pauley, states that at least 87% of the elk in this region needs to survive each year in order to sustain an elk herd. At present that survival rate is estimated at 75%.

And with this information, I have some questions. The first one and most obvious is what took IDFG so long to make an official announcement, assuming Unsworth’s announcement is official and not some rogue event?

One report from The Olympian said:

The agency estimates cow elk in a remote area designated as the Lolo Hunting Zone have dwindled by as much as 13 percent each year. A recent study of radio-collared cow elk indicates that for the most part, wolves are to blame, Fish and Game says.

My second question now becomes, for how many years have they determined, or better yet, known, that the cow elk have been dwindling at such a rate? Which leads me to my final question.

Why hasn’t IDFG done something about this problem and here’s the reason I ask? Back last January 25, 2008, I reported that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while waiting for the formal delisting of the gray wolf, announced that it was easing some of the wolf management restrictions. Among those easements was one that allowed F&G to protect herds of elk.

While much of the west in and around the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone Park wait impatiently for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to formally announce the removal of the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act, the USFWS announced that until that event takes place, they are easing some of the restrictions on the wolf in order to give flexibility to states to implement actions to protect wild herds of elk, deer and moose, protect livestock, private property and for public safety. The states involved are Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

At the time of this report, Ed Bangs, USFWS wolf recovery leader, said there were no areas in the West where wolves where destroying elk herds but wanted to be prepared.

Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says he knows of no areas where wolves are destroying elk herds in the west. That is probably debatable by some, especially concerning the elk herd in Yellowstone Park.

The point to all this is that USFWS and the three states, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, appear to be approaching this entire wolf delisting event with an attitude of being prepared and creating tools to be able to use in order to stave off any problems that may arise that would put elk, deer or moose herds in jeopardy from wolves. Reasonable people shouldn’t find a problem with that. Unreasonable people, which is what we are dealing with constantly with wolf recovery efforts, can only embellish facts and blow things completely out of proportion.

Well, it appears that we have our first official announcement of wolves destroying an elk herd in the Lolo region and the question I have is what is being done about it?

To the best of my recollections in researching through past articles, it is my understanding that even when Judge Donald Molloy ruled to issue the temporary injunction that placed the wolf back on the Endangered Species Act list, this ruling did not eliminate the eased restrictions USFWS had announce that gave F&G more flexibility to handle issues like this.

Finally an announcement from Idaho Fish and Game that wolves are destroying one elk herd. How long they have known this remains to be seen. IDFG has the flexibility granted them by the USFWS to protect that elk herd. Now they need to do something about it.

Tom Remington