After YNP wolf deaths, will Montana make changes to hunting laws?
It started with a Facebook message from a friend: “What is all this (BS) I hear about 7 YNP wolves shot outside the park?”
Joe hadn’t ever reacted like this over wolves — not when they were removed from Endangered Species Act protections in Idaho and Montana, not when hunting seasons began in both states, not even when Wyoming was handed management reins despite a biologically flawed road map that allows wolves to be killed like varmints anytime, anywhere and in almost any manner across more than 80 percent of the state.
Now he was incensed, like many others who’d spent memorable outings watching some of the very wolves he now feared dead.
I checked for confirmation. Sure enough, seven wolves dead, all legally shot just outside of Yellowstone National Park’s boundaries. Two were “dispersers” that hadn’t spent much time in Yellowstone of late, but three were from packs synonymous with the park’s wolf mystique — the Mollies, Blacktail Plateau and Lamar Canyon.
Ever since, I have tried to absorb the unsettling news.
Now, I have long maintained that wolves are neither demons nor deities. Irrational vitriol from the feverish anti- and pro-wolf crowds have only inflamed emotions over a creature that simply plays a vital role in a healthy ecology — and, as it turns out, economy.
All the bluster about wolves being exotic, over-sized, parasite-ridden wanton killers that have wiped out half the livestock and elk populations of the Northern Rockies is no more or less ridiculous than assertions that anyone who wishes to hunt a wolf should have their guns impounded, be imprisoned or worse.
Further, I understood that even with Endangered Species Act protections many wolves from this new “non-essential experimental” population would necessarily perish due to livestock predation, as nearly 2,000 have from government bullets since 1995.
I also recognized hunting as a valuable tool for maintaining balance among wildlife populations.
Even Yellowstone wolves I readily acknowledged as wild animals in a wild world fraught with peril.
They would starve. They would contract lethal diseases. They would die from the thrash of an elk hoof, the swat of a grizzly bear paw, or in the clenched jaws of another turf-hungry wolf.
At the same time, for 17 years, hundreds of thousands of people have come to Yellowstone solely for the privilege of viewing a wolf in the wild. Weren’t at least these mere 88 park wolves roaming a sanctuary of sorts, safe from the crosshairs of high-powered rifles?
That perception has been shattered.
It’s important to note that Montana has been a laudable manager of wolves. Now the state has another opportunity to show leadership on this highly sensitive issue, and to avoid the international black eye sure to follow if every effort isn’t made to limit Yellowstone wolf mortality.
Priority No. 1: banning wolf trapping — a practice neither Wyoming nor Idaho allows in most of Greater Yellowstone — in hunting units adjacent to Yellowstone, set to begin Dec. 15.
Further, Montana should consider reducing quotas or eliminating hunts in areas surrounding the park.
Yellowstone-area wolf populations have stabilized. Livestock predation has been negligible or, in the case of Gallatin County, non-existent. Population objectives needn’t be met on the backs of Yellowstone wolves.
Already this fall in Montana, 23 wolves have been killed with firearms near the park. A one-two punch of hunting and trapping surely will dramatically impact an animal whose presence benefits the park and gateway communities to the direct tune of $35.5 million annually.
Some contend that wolves are wolves, and that these animals are no different than any of 1,650 others in the Northern Rockies. They say the loss of a few Yellowstone wolves won’t impact the overall population. Other wolves will be collared, and research will carry on.
Even if true, they miss the point. These weren’t just any wolves.
Just ask my Facebook friend Joe and millions of coming visitors who are wondering: what does the future hold for the wolf in Yellowstone now?
— Jeff Welsch is communications director for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He can be reached at jwelsch@greateryellowstone.org.
source
It started with a Facebook message from a friend: “What is all this (BS) I hear about 7 YNP wolves shot outside the park?”
Joe hadn’t ever reacted like this over wolves — not when they were removed from Endangered Species Act protections in Idaho and Montana, not when hunting seasons began in both states, not even when Wyoming was handed management reins despite a biologically flawed road map that allows wolves to be killed like varmints anytime, anywhere and in almost any manner across more than 80 percent of the state.
Now he was incensed, like many others who’d spent memorable outings watching some of the very wolves he now feared dead.
I checked for confirmation. Sure enough, seven wolves dead, all legally shot just outside of Yellowstone National Park’s boundaries. Two were “dispersers” that hadn’t spent much time in Yellowstone of late, but three were from packs synonymous with the park’s wolf mystique — the Mollies, Blacktail Plateau and Lamar Canyon.
Ever since, I have tried to absorb the unsettling news.
Now, I have long maintained that wolves are neither demons nor deities. Irrational vitriol from the feverish anti- and pro-wolf crowds have only inflamed emotions over a creature that simply plays a vital role in a healthy ecology — and, as it turns out, economy.
All the bluster about wolves being exotic, over-sized, parasite-ridden wanton killers that have wiped out half the livestock and elk populations of the Northern Rockies is no more or less ridiculous than assertions that anyone who wishes to hunt a wolf should have their guns impounded, be imprisoned or worse.
Further, I understood that even with Endangered Species Act protections many wolves from this new “non-essential experimental” population would necessarily perish due to livestock predation, as nearly 2,000 have from government bullets since 1995.
I also recognized hunting as a valuable tool for maintaining balance among wildlife populations.
Even Yellowstone wolves I readily acknowledged as wild animals in a wild world fraught with peril.
They would starve. They would contract lethal diseases. They would die from the thrash of an elk hoof, the swat of a grizzly bear paw, or in the clenched jaws of another turf-hungry wolf.
At the same time, for 17 years, hundreds of thousands of people have come to Yellowstone solely for the privilege of viewing a wolf in the wild. Weren’t at least these mere 88 park wolves roaming a sanctuary of sorts, safe from the crosshairs of high-powered rifles?
That perception has been shattered.
It’s important to note that Montana has been a laudable manager of wolves. Now the state has another opportunity to show leadership on this highly sensitive issue, and to avoid the international black eye sure to follow if every effort isn’t made to limit Yellowstone wolf mortality.
Priority No. 1: banning wolf trapping — a practice neither Wyoming nor Idaho allows in most of Greater Yellowstone — in hunting units adjacent to Yellowstone, set to begin Dec. 15.
Further, Montana should consider reducing quotas or eliminating hunts in areas surrounding the park.
Yellowstone-area wolf populations have stabilized. Livestock predation has been negligible or, in the case of Gallatin County, non-existent. Population objectives needn’t be met on the backs of Yellowstone wolves.
Already this fall in Montana, 23 wolves have been killed with firearms near the park. A one-two punch of hunting and trapping surely will dramatically impact an animal whose presence benefits the park and gateway communities to the direct tune of $35.5 million annually.
Some contend that wolves are wolves, and that these animals are no different than any of 1,650 others in the Northern Rockies. They say the loss of a few Yellowstone wolves won’t impact the overall population. Other wolves will be collared, and research will carry on.
Even if true, they miss the point. These weren’t just any wolves.
Just ask my Facebook friend Joe and millions of coming visitors who are wondering: what does the future hold for the wolf in Yellowstone now?
— Jeff Welsch is communications director for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He can be reached at jwelsch@greateryellowstone.org.
source