Information On Northern Rocky Mountain Wolves

This edition of The Outdoorsman focuses a lot on the 20%-plus hunting, fishing and trapping license fee increase being requested by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. As is always the case, the Outdoorsman in loaded with history and facts about wildlife management. I would like to point out that even though the Outdoorsman originates out of Idaho and much of the articles and information pertain specifically to Idaho, I subscribe to it and read it regularly because it contains a wealth of information that can be applied to most any state wildlife management programs.

If you would like to subscribe to the Outdoorsman, please use the information contained below to purchase such.

Below is an article written by the editor of the Outdoorsman, George Dovel containing updated information on the Northern Rocky Mountains gray wolf.

*Note* – Mr. Dovel is referring to a table found at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game website as part of their wolf management update. Please refer to that table that can be accessed by clicking the link provided.

Increase in Wolf Depredation and Wolf Mortality
Footnote 1 in the above chart should read only “resulting in death” and not include “injury.” According to IDFG, USDA/APHIS Wildlife Services (WS) confirmed that wolves killed 16 cows, 86 calves, 215 sheep, 14 dogs and one foal (ttl. 332); injured one cow, seven calves, six sheep seven dogs (ttl 21); probably killed six cows, 22 calves, 57 sheep (ttl. 85); and probably injured one cow, three calves, one sheep and two dogs (ttl. 7).

This equals 353 confirmed and 92 probable – a total of 445 animals that were apparently killed or injured during the first 11 months of 2008 instead of the 331 shown in the chart. Either figure is a significant increase over the 278 in 2007 but remember that earlier studies in which WS participated indicate the remains of only one in six animals killed by wolves are even found!

The increased kills occurred despite the fact that the known wolf mortality in these 11 months was nearly double that recorded in 2007. Outdoorsman readers may recall that the increased depredation was forecast by Wildlife Services due to the continued high percentage of increase in wolf populations.

Singles and Small Groups Go Undetected

On Dec. 5th, an Outdoorsman reader spotted a large dead wolf by the side of the road near the city limits of Star in the Boise Valley. He examined the carcass and the broken pieces of plastic from the vehicle that hit it but when he came back about a half hour or so later the carcass had disappeared.

Neither IDFG, nor local law enforcement and road dept. personnel were aware of this wolf even being in the vicinity, which again confirms that lone wolves and smaller groups go undetected. Reports by elk hunters from the Boise foothills to the Panhandle Region indicated significant increases in both wolf sign and wolf sightings.

ID, MT Officials Report Declining Harvests

In 2008 spot checks and check station records, mule deer hunters in Idaho reported the worst harvest in years and elk hunters in many units, both north and south of the Salmon River, checked significantly fewer harvested elk than in previous years. IDFG says the increased wolf presence and increased livestock predation is caused by increasing wolf numbers moving into previously unoccupied areas.

But a group of outdoorsmen who are monitoring both wolves and elk in remote areas more intently than IDFG does, also believe wolves have decimated the elk herds in those areas and moved to farm/ranch areas where livestock and domestic animals make up for the decline of wild game in their diet. In either case, there is agreement that Idaho wolves have increased beyond their available habitat.

In Northwest Montana, hunter harvest surveys revealed a 17% decline in the number of whitetail bucks killed by hunters in 2007. This year, reports of wolf encounters by Montana hunters have increased significantly and wolves are also killing more livestock.

Hunter Proposals Seek State Management

As is happening in Idaho, Montana hunters are extremely upset by the lack of game, and some agricultural groups that have remained aloof are now reportedly joining hunters in a united effort to introduce legislation to remedy the problem. Proposed legislation in both states, and similar proposals in Wyoming, generally say the states have acted in good faith and kept their commitments and should be allowed to assume management as promised.

Several proposals also cite the 10th Amendment Right of the states to manage all wildlife within their borders. Although that is a legitimate position to take, courts may question why states waited 35 years after the fact to challenge the 1973 CITES Treaty and 1973 passage of the Endangered Species Act.

In Idaho, the Governor and several Legislators have expressed opposition to any form of wolf legislation being introduced prior to the end of January (when it is rumored that at least two of the states will once again have the authority to manage wolves under FWS supervision). Proponents of the legislation argue that this will not stop wolf preservationists from again challenging delisting and seeking another injunction to halt hunting of wolves.

Three Issues ID Legislators Need To Address

Three other issues that must be resolved even if wolf management is restored to the states are:

(1) the contradictory Implementation Plan passed by the Idaho F&G Commission with a minimum population criterion that exceeds the 15 breeding pair management goal in Idaho’s 2002 Wolf Conservation and Management Plan by several hundred percent;

(2) the inability of private hunters and trappers to reduce wolf populations in Idaho to the extent necessary to restore healthy big game populations and limit wolf predation on livestock and domestic animals;

(3) the need for a guaranteed annual federal funding amount that is adequate to effectively monitor both wolves and their prey – as well as pay for the aerial control that will be necessary to supplement sportsman harvests.

1. Correct the OSC-IDFG Implementation Plan

When Idaho reached the 10 breeding pair recovery goal, FWS applied pressure to the three states to add a 50% buffer of five more breeding pairs in their management plans. If the number of breeding pairs fell below 15 in Idaho, it did not automatically halt hunting and trapping as some who apparently have never read the plan insist.

The Idaho Plan does not halt wolf harvest until the number of breeding pairs falls below 10. Being below 15 pairs simply requires more careful wolf monitoring and harvest to insure halting lethal control if the population falls below the magic 100 wolves. When the Legislature gave the Office of Species Conservation (OSC) and IDFG the joint authority and duty to develop an implementation plan in cooperation with Montana’s and Wyoming’s plans, it said the plan must be in accordance with the existing (2002) Idaho Wolf Conservation and Management Plan.

Instead, IDFG biologists insisted a third minimum of 20 breeding pairs (200 wolves) be inserted in the new implementation plan and a new management goal of 50-70 breeding pairs be established in the plan as another “safety net.” Both of these changes violated the 15 breeding pairs management goal in Idaho’s Plan yet the Commission rubber-stamped the complicated plan to manage for 500+ wolves instead of for 150.

Even Judge Molloy who issued the injunction accepted the 10 breeding pair minimum and 15-breeding pair management goal as the correct criteria for Idaho management. Yet IDFG and OSC recently sent him and FWS a letter pandering to the wolf preservationists and reiterating their intention to manage for 500+ wolves.

2. Private Hunting/Trapping is Inadequate

Wolf experts agree that the only place sport hunting and trapping might limit wolf numbers is on flat, fenced areas. Nothing like that exists in most Idaho wolf habitat so relying on sport hunters and trappers to take enough wolves to restore healthy densities defies logic.

3. Securing Adequate Annual Federal Funding

Montana wolf biologists have already used up the federal funds allocated to monitor wolf populations in this fiscal year and the amount of money required to monitor wolf and prey populations in the Idaho plan was grossly underestimated by IDFG. The 2002 Plan Directed IDFG to actively secure additional funding for wolf management yet its nongame account balance is inadequate – even without spending any funds for wolf management.

Idaho’s 2002 Plan emphasized that state wolf management depends upon the ability of Idaho’s Congressional delegation to obtain adequate annual funding. Like State Wildlife Grant funding, wolf management funding relies upon an annual appropriation by Congress and there is no assurance that sufficient funds will be available beyond the current fiscal year.

The Plan stipulates that if adequate federal funding is not available Idaho will cease managing wolves but this will not prevent it from spending money to control wolf depredation. This remains a generally well-written plan that provides for most contingencies and, hopefully, the Idaho Legislature will not allow any person or agency to alter this plan.

Editor’s Opinion

(Prudent citizens and legislators in all three states recognize that the costs and impacts of wolf recovery in the northern Rocky Mountains now far exceed all of the EIS projections. We are at a critical point where no one, including the wolf advocates in FWS and the state wildlife agencies, can afford to manage wolves.

If Idaho, and the other two NRM states, cannot manage wolves on their own terms expressed in the state management plans accepted by FWS, they would be well advised to walk away from this monster before it devours them. Several Idaho Legislators still blame Wyoming for the mess we are in and biologists in Montana FWP are trying to distance themselves from Idaho, claiming that Idaho’s plan is “just as bad” as Wyoming’s.

Legislators in all three states should stop trying to deal with the devil separately and present a unified insistence on either sticking to the original agreements, or else file damage claims and dump this problem back on FWS and Congress where it originated. – ED)

Posted by Tom Remington