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Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) is doing its part in preparing for that eventuality, however. The Fish and Game's Commissioners requested the Legislature approve a wolf tag cost of $26.50 for residents and $256.00 for nonresidents. But the state Senate voted 35-0 to charge Idaho residents $9.75 to legally hunt a wolf and non-residents $150.00 once wolves are removed from federal protection. The bill now goes to the House.
The Senate bill also allows 10 wolf tags to be sold by auction or drawings administered by nonprofit conservation groups. The groups will be allowed to keep up to 5 per cent of the proceeds.
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is also doing its part in the delisting process. They filed a formal Federal Register of the proposal on February 8, 2007.
U. S. Fish and Wildlife meetings will be held in cities in six states from 3 to 5 p.m. Public comments will formally begin from 6 to 8 p.m. Meeting places and dates are listed at the bottom of this article.
Your comments can also be sent by mail to: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wolf Delisting, 585 Shepard Way, Helena, MT 59601. Or by email to:
All comments must be received by the end of the business day on April 9, 2007
So, delisting is expected sometime in 2008. However, will we have wolf hunting in 2008? I say, ain't gonna happen. Give it a couple years, maybe longer.
Guys, guys and ladies! -- do you think we're not going to get sued?! Well, the pro-wolf organizations will sue the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service first for giving us control of the wolves. They'll take it slow, and will eventually sue the state of Idaho, and so putting off the hunting of wolves in Idaho as long as possible. And, who knows? They may win a few legal points in the process.
All hell will probably break loose in the courtroom. Various organizations will challenge the delisting on several grounds. Your guess is as good as mine what those grounds will be -- that it's too soon, the real numbers of wolves are iffy, that Idaho intends to kill them all, right down to the minimum, that killing this spirit-creature is a sin¡¦
This will delay things for quite a while, I think, maybe years.
My guess is the number of wolves in Idaho is greater than estimated. There are more out there than we can track. (Twelve years ago, 66 Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves were reintroduced to central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park (35 placed in Idaho). Of the 1200 they've grown to, about 650-700 supposedly are in Idaho.)
I suspect that when wolf tags are sold, hunters will certainly kill a fair number of them initially. Perhaps they'll "harvest" a certain percentage every year, but never will they be able to decrease their numbers down to the bottom line. (If we do, the whole process starts over again with the Feds taking over.)
Even the Federal Wildlife Services sharpshooters hired to eliminate problem wolves get only about 30% of what is requested, and they have helicopters and tracking devices to find those wolves with collars. Hunters won't have those advantages.
Alaska has noted that in a specific area of Alaska, there are about 20,000 wolves. About 6,000 hunters bring their wolf tags to this area intending to fill those tags. Those repeat hunters kill about 20 wolves a year in that area. In Alaska and theYukon combined, there are approximately 100,000 wolves currently.
Wolves are smart. You won't see many once they are hunted. It will be an effective management tool. They will retreat to their wilderness, and continue to enthrall us with their beauty and fierceness just by being out there. Many of us will feel lucky to see one.
How many of you have heard the eerie scream tapering to a menacing growl of the mountain lion? (I have only once.) When you hear a wolf howl, it will be hair-raising -- and rare in most places.
It took us a long time to kill 'em all before. It won't happen again. We will learn to live with them. They will eat a few of our elk and deer and once in a while our livestock, and pets. It will be sad, like when the mountain lion gets our horses, or our hikers, god-forbid our kids. Nobody promised us a rose-garden, and the real world isn't that.
We will have to be better hunters to get our game meat, too, because wolves are already making game animals spookier. I'm spookier now too when I go for walks in the hills, or hunt elk by myself in the deep snow. I am more feeble these days. Hunting is harder, anyway.
I have already seen 6 wolves. I'm OK with that. (Haven't heard one howl yet, though.)
You can never please everybody.
Managing the environment is our job as stewards of this planet. We aren't always doing that so well, but it's still our responsibility.
I say: wolves are here to stay and they deserve the space they take up.
"Why is everything always such a fight?" says a friend.
February 27, 2007
Holiday Inn Cheyenne
204 West Fox Farm Rd.
Cheyenne, WY
February 28
Plaza Hotel
122 West South Temple
Salt Lake City, UT
March 1
Jorgenson's Inn & Suites
1714 11th Ave.
Helena, MT
March 6
Boise Convention Center on the Grove
850 W. Front St.
Boise, ID
March 7
Pendleton Red Lion Inn
304 S.E. Nye St.
Pendleton, OR
March 8
Oxford Inns & Suites
15015 East Indiana Ave.
Spokane Valley, WA
Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez
Report Wolf Sightings to Fish & Wildlife Service
Map of North Rocky Mountain wolf populations (PDF Adobe file)