By JIM ROBBINS
The war over wolves continues in the West.
In May, the Department of Interior announced that it was taking wolves off the Endangered Species List and that management would be turned over to state wildlife agencies. Rather than reduce controversy, however, its decision seems to have increased it.
Wildlife officials in Idaho announced a plan, taking effect this month, that would rely on snare and leg-hold trapping and helicopter-borne sharpshooters to kill as many as 75 wolves in mountainous terrain in the east, near the Montana border, known as the Lolo Zone.
In Montana, the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has extended the hunting season on wolves past the Dec. 31 deadline, saying that not enough wolves were shot during the season. Just 105 wolves have been taken so far, it said, and officials wanted hunters to harvest 220.
Meanwhile, a photo from 2006 released on a conservation blog, Wildlife News, has stirred controversy. It shows a plane operated by federal sharpshooters with 58 paw print stickers on the side representing the number of wolf kills the agents have made, similar to the way fighter pilots signify how many planes they have shot down. Officials say that the stickers have since been removed.
Critics of wolf reductions say that state officials are allowing too many to be killed, bowing to pressure from hunters, who complain that wolves have decimated elk populations.
Elk numbers in the West have indeed dropped precipitously. In the 1980s, an estimated 16,000 elk roamed the Lolo Zone, versus an estimated 2,000 today. Elk numbers have declined similarly north of Yellowstone National Park, where officials once held special reduction hunts because elk numbers were so large.
Critics say that targeting wolves with sharpshooters and trappers or extending hunts goes against promises to carefully manage wolf populations when the states assumed management earlier this year.
Ed Bangs, a recently retired coordinator for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service Wolf Recovery Project, said that the shooting of wolves is a move to placate hunters. “A little blood satisfies a lot of anger,” he said.
Reducing wolf numbers won’t work, he contends, and it is not sound wildlife management “Research shows you need to reduce a lot of predators in a large area,” he said. Mountain lions, bears, and coyotes prey on elk as well.
Killing wolves and other predators, he said, “isn’t wildlife management — it’s farming. You are farming elk for hunters.”
Other critics have questioned the ethics of trapping wolves to reduce their numbers. Wolves are caught in snares that slowly choke the animal to death as it tries to free itself.
Mr. Bangs does not suggest that shooting and trapping wolves will endanger the population. Idaho has a minimum of 705 wolves, Montana has an estimated 566 and Wyoming has an estimated 343. If wolf numbers fall below 150 in each state, it would trigger a return to federal protection for the animal.
But since the wolf population expands at more than 30 percent a year, that is not likely to happen. “The population will be just fine,” Mr. Bangs said.
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Associated PressA gray wolf. Montana has extended its wolf hunting season past a Dec. 31 deadline.
In May, the Department of Interior announced that it was taking wolves off the Endangered Species List and that management would be turned over to state wildlife agencies. Rather than reduce controversy, however, its decision seems to have increased it.
Wildlife officials in Idaho announced a plan, taking effect this month, that would rely on snare and leg-hold trapping and helicopter-borne sharpshooters to kill as many as 75 wolves in mountainous terrain in the east, near the Montana border, known as the Lolo Zone.
In Montana, the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has extended the hunting season on wolves past the Dec. 31 deadline, saying that not enough wolves were shot during the season. Just 105 wolves have been taken so far, it said, and officials wanted hunters to harvest 220.
Meanwhile, a photo from 2006 released on a conservation blog, Wildlife News, has stirred controversy. It shows a plane operated by federal sharpshooters with 58 paw print stickers on the side representing the number of wolf kills the agents have made, similar to the way fighter pilots signify how many planes they have shot down. Officials say that the stickers have since been removed.
Critics of wolf reductions say that state officials are allowing too many to be killed, bowing to pressure from hunters, who complain that wolves have decimated elk populations.
Elk numbers in the West have indeed dropped precipitously. In the 1980s, an estimated 16,000 elk roamed the Lolo Zone, versus an estimated 2,000 today. Elk numbers have declined similarly north of Yellowstone National Park, where officials once held special reduction hunts because elk numbers were so large.
Critics say that targeting wolves with sharpshooters and trappers or extending hunts goes against promises to carefully manage wolf populations when the states assumed management earlier this year.
Ed Bangs, a recently retired coordinator for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service Wolf Recovery Project, said that the shooting of wolves is a move to placate hunters. “A little blood satisfies a lot of anger,” he said.
Reducing wolf numbers won’t work, he contends, and it is not sound wildlife management “Research shows you need to reduce a lot of predators in a large area,” he said. Mountain lions, bears, and coyotes prey on elk as well.
Killing wolves and other predators, he said, “isn’t wildlife management — it’s farming. You are farming elk for hunters.”
Other critics have questioned the ethics of trapping wolves to reduce their numbers. Wolves are caught in snares that slowly choke the animal to death as it tries to free itself.
Mr. Bangs does not suggest that shooting and trapping wolves will endanger the population. Idaho has a minimum of 705 wolves, Montana has an estimated 566 and Wyoming has an estimated 343. If wolf numbers fall below 150 in each state, it would trigger a return to federal protection for the animal.
But since the wolf population expands at more than 30 percent a year, that is not likely to happen. “The population will be just fine,” Mr. Bangs said.
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