Wolf close-up
Photo: NPS Public Domain
Capitulating (again) to the hunting lobby, the state of Idaho has begun another onslaught on wolves. The state has hired the widely-criticized federal USDA APHIS Wildlife Services
to bring in professional hunters in helicopters - paid for at taxpayer
expense - to slaughter wolves from the air in a designated, protected
wilderness area: Idahos Lolo Zone. Wolves are dying as this is being
written. Environmental groups are outraged. Shooting wolves to
artificially boost elk
populations for hunters (to shoot), in Clearwater National Forest, a
designated, self-willed wilderness area - Isn't a wilderness area
exactly the place where native species of all kinds are supposed to be
afforded protection from 'management' and human meddling?
According to the February 8th. 2016 press release from Friends of the Clearwater and Western Watersheds Project, the cull is being conducted "at the behest of the Idaho Fish & Game Department. The government is using helicopter gunners to kill wolves in the so-called ‘Lolo Zone,’ which covers portions of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and stretches north across the North Fork Clearwater drainage." This is an immense, rugged area of over one million pristine, roadless acres."Excellent habitat for native predators like gray wolves, lynx, wolverines, and fisher exists throughout the Clearwater National Forest, including in the Lolo Zone,” said Ken Cole, Idaho Director of Western Watersheds Project and contributor to The Wildlife News. “But the Idaho Fish & Game Department wants to turn this wild country into an elk farm and that’s ridiculous and inappropriate.”
The supposed rationale behind the slaughter is to protect declining elk populations for the benefit of hunters, upon whose fees the state's wildlife agencies rely. However, according to Gary MacFarlane, Ecosystem Defense Director of the Friends of the Clearwater, “The Idaho Fish & Game Department is wrongfully blaming the decline of elk populations in the Lolo Zone on native carnivores, including gray wolves. Everyone, including the Idaho Fish and Game Department, knows the decline is due to long-term habitat changes in that area. Targeting predators like recovering gray wolves is unscientific, won’t work to boost elk numbers and violates the wildness of these public lands.”
There has been much talk by western states lately about removing federal involvement in state matters, so this move to employ the feds to aerial-hunt wolf families on wilderness lands further confuses (and infuriates). So, here's Idaho, falling back on those hated Feds to provide helicopter gunners to murder innocent wolf families way out in roadless, designated wilderness areas set aside for all Americans (not just hunters and trappers) and all wildlife. All to sate the appetites of sportsmen who would rather be the ones killing (for sport) elk that the wolves and other wildlife need for survival.
Makes sense, right?
There seems to be a lot of this going around. Just recently wolves were 'accidentally' collared in a 'elk study' in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Not only is vehicle intrusion contrary to the intent of a roadless wilderness area, but such invasive study methods put animals at risk during capture and handling as well as thereafter. Now radio-collared, those wolves are at the mercy of hunter-placating agencies who would love to remove them, their pups and any and all competition for trophy elk. (Might other hunters not also be seen as competition?)
And all on our dime. As Ken Cole noted, “Governor Otter should be spending that money to fund public schools, highways and other important services, not on the killing of Idaho’s native wildlife.”
To see how aerial gunning looks, follow this link. CAUTION - Graphic images. For employees just 'doing their jobs', there sure are a lot of broadly smiling 'trophy' photos here. Back in 2014, the cost to state taxpayers just for Governor Butch Otter's Idaho 'predator control' was $400,000. Now add aerial killing federal contracts like this one to the bill. Wow, what a great job these federal employees have - being paid by every American to have fun slaughtering our wildlife.
*Petition to stop slaughter, here.
source
According to the February 8th. 2016 press release from Friends of the Clearwater and Western Watersheds Project, the cull is being conducted "at the behest of the Idaho Fish & Game Department. The government is using helicopter gunners to kill wolves in the so-called ‘Lolo Zone,’ which covers portions of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and stretches north across the North Fork Clearwater drainage." This is an immense, rugged area of over one million pristine, roadless acres."Excellent habitat for native predators like gray wolves, lynx, wolverines, and fisher exists throughout the Clearwater National Forest, including in the Lolo Zone,” said Ken Cole, Idaho Director of Western Watersheds Project and contributor to The Wildlife News. “But the Idaho Fish & Game Department wants to turn this wild country into an elk farm and that’s ridiculous and inappropriate.”
The supposed rationale behind the slaughter is to protect declining elk populations for the benefit of hunters, upon whose fees the state's wildlife agencies rely. However, according to Gary MacFarlane, Ecosystem Defense Director of the Friends of the Clearwater, “The Idaho Fish & Game Department is wrongfully blaming the decline of elk populations in the Lolo Zone on native carnivores, including gray wolves. Everyone, including the Idaho Fish and Game Department, knows the decline is due to long-term habitat changes in that area. Targeting predators like recovering gray wolves is unscientific, won’t work to boost elk numbers and violates the wildness of these public lands.”
There has been much talk by western states lately about removing federal involvement in state matters, so this move to employ the feds to aerial-hunt wolf families on wilderness lands further confuses (and infuriates). So, here's Idaho, falling back on those hated Feds to provide helicopter gunners to murder innocent wolf families way out in roadless, designated wilderness areas set aside for all Americans (not just hunters and trappers) and all wildlife. All to sate the appetites of sportsmen who would rather be the ones killing (for sport) elk that the wolves and other wildlife need for survival.
Makes sense, right?
There seems to be a lot of this going around. Just recently wolves were 'accidentally' collared in a 'elk study' in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Not only is vehicle intrusion contrary to the intent of a roadless wilderness area, but such invasive study methods put animals at risk during capture and handling as well as thereafter. Now radio-collared, those wolves are at the mercy of hunter-placating agencies who would love to remove them, their pups and any and all competition for trophy elk. (Might other hunters not also be seen as competition?)
And all on our dime. As Ken Cole noted, “Governor Otter should be spending that money to fund public schools, highways and other important services, not on the killing of Idaho’s native wildlife.”
To see how aerial gunning looks, follow this link. CAUTION - Graphic images. For employees just 'doing their jobs', there sure are a lot of broadly smiling 'trophy' photos here. Back in 2014, the cost to state taxpayers just for Governor Butch Otter's Idaho 'predator control' was $400,000. Now add aerial killing federal contracts like this one to the bill. Wow, what a great job these federal employees have - being paid by every American to have fun slaughtering our wildlife.
*Petition to stop slaughter, here.
source
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