May 31, 2014
Nearly 20 years ago, I served on the team that carefully captured and released the first wolves in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park. Though this reintroduction effort was heralded internationally as a significant American achievement in the recovery of endangered species, we’re in a far different place today, and especially in Idaho.
The state has been working to undermine
this conservation success story by proclaiming its intentions to kill
most of its 659 wolves. Starting in 2011, when the federal government
granted Idaho authority over wolves, breeding pairs began declining and
are now down by 50 percent. Overall, since 2011, the state’s aggressive
tactics have led to the deaths of 1,000 wolves.
Wolves, it turns out, are surprisingly
easy to kill, though that should not come as a surprise. For decades,
stockmen, bounty hunters and government trappers killed thousands of
wolves using traps and poison. Today, wolves are chased down and killed
from government helicopters by shooters using high-tech weapons, GPS and
radio telemetry devices, and infrared scopes.
Since last December, Idaho state officials
have authorized concealed aerial-gunning programs, paid contractors to
attempt to kill entire wolf packs in designated wilderness areas,
allowed competitive wolf-killing derbies to take place and liberalized
hunting and trapping regulations. The state’s goal is to kill as many
wolves as possible as fast as possible. As Brad Corkill, a commissioner
for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said, “If every wolf in Idaho
disappeared, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.”
And state officials are just getting
started. Idaho Gov. “Butch” Otter’s recently established “Wolf Control
Fund and State Board” is charged with killing hundreds more wolves, with
funding coming from state taxpayers. Recently, the Idaho Department of
Fish and Game adopted a new predation management plan that calls for
killing up to 60 percent of the wolves living in the heart of the
federally protected Frank Church Wilderness. This is the largest
forested wilderness in the continental United States, named in honor of
one of Idaho’s greatest political leaders, the late U.S. Sen. Frank
Church. Wilderness is defined as a special place set aside for wildlife,
and visitors are expected to leave no trace. Now, Idaho is going to
fill this wild place with traps and snares to kill wolves in hopes of
increasing the number of elk for the few hunters who go there.
What is truly destructive is that state
officials seem bent on perpetuating a culture of fear and loathing
toward wolves. They repeat gruesome tales from mythology and fail to
tell the true, full story about successful ranching in the presence of
wolves, or the many reasons why the elk population has declined. And
counter to the media hype over wolf attacks, livestock losses to wolves
have always ranked among the lowest causes of livestock loss in the
West.
I know that not everyone in Idaho
hates wolves. I grew up in Idaho, and I’ve found that most Idahoans
don’t know many of the facts behind the wolf conflict. I also don’t
believe that rural residents are fooled by the propaganda from
campaigners against the wolf.
In central Idaho’s Sawtooth
National Forest -- a sheep superhighway that is also wolf territory --
Blaine County ranchers, county, state and federal agencies, and local
wolf advocates have been working together to resolve conflicts using
non-lethal wolf management and livestock husbandry methods. These
methods include deterrents like livestock guard dogs and electric
fencing that dramatically reduce or eliminate livestock losses while
also building social acceptance for wolves. The solid results are
undeniable.
For the last six years, more than 100,000
sheep and lambs have grazed across this area amid wolf packs. Yet fewer
than 30 sheep have been killed in the project area during that time, and
no wolves have been killed by government agencies in the project area.
Nonlethal control methods are cheaper than
killing wolves, and Blaine County has the lowest rate of livestock
losses in the state. Why doesn’t the state of Idaho and Idaho USDA
Wildlife Services save us all some money and goodwill and make peace
with wolves when such reasonable alternatives are available?
After being persecuted for centuries,
wolves deserve a better future in this country -- and in Idaho in
particular. We need to demand that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
initiate a status review of wolves in the region and examine how wolves
have fared since being stripped of Endangered Species Act protection.
Wolves in Idaho need our support to stay alive.
Suzanne Stone is a contributor
to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). She
is Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife in Boise,
Idaho.
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