CONTRIBUTED
By David Cucchiara
Published Saturday, February 15, 2014
By Fred Bonner
Contributor
In the past few weeks, the Eastern North
Carolina battle between the pro-red wolf forces and the anti-red wolf
forces have been thrashed around between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
offices in Atlanta and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission in
Raleigh. The questionable wildlife management practices that were
causing the problems were supposed to be addressed in Judge Terrence
Boyle’s Federal Courtroom in Raleigh last Tuesday, but, as of Thursday
evening, no ruling was to be had.
The
problem originated when, after coyotes had become a major problem, the
NCWRC decided to allow the statewide night hunting of coyotes by using
spotlights. It was a wildlife management tool that was badly needed
because coyotes are primarily nocturnal feeders and their primary diet
was whitetail deer, one of our most valued wildlife resources. All over
North Carolina coyotes are destroying large numbers of domestic animals,
quail, turkeys, rabbits and other kinds of wildlife. There’s no
question that the coyote problem is bad and rapidly getting worse.
After the
night hunting of coyotes began, several experimental and non-essential
red wolves were killed in North Carolina. The Red Wolf Coalition and the
North Carolina Wildlife Federation decided that hunters could have
accidentally killed these wolves while enjoying newly legal night
hunting method. Some of the dead red wolves that were killed were
outside the five county core area (Beaufort, Hyde, Dare, Washington and
Tyrell Counties) in which the red wolves are considered to be
experimental and non-essential, and are therefore deemed “endangered.”
The Red Wolf Coalition and the NC Wildlife
Federation are asking for a temporary injunction that would put a stop
to night hunting of coyotes in the five-county area where the red wolves
were supposed to be contained by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Lawsuits were filed against the entire (each member
by name) N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission because of their support of
the night hunting. In a further step to protect the experimental and
non-essential red wolves in the five Eastern North Carolina Counties,
the pro-red wolf forces hired the Southern Environmental Law Firm to ask
the Federal Court to ban all coyote hunting in the five county core
area in order to protect the red wolves
As of Friday morning, Judge Terrence Boyle has not
rendered his decision of whether or not to ban all coyote hunting in
Beaufort, Hyde, Dare, Tyrell and Washington Counties.
Farm owner Jett Ferebee has recently been granted
by the USFWS the first known permit to kill a red wolf on his Tyrell
County Farm.
After numerous complaints to the USFWS about having
red wolves on his farm and receiving no relief from the USFWS, Ferebee
decided to push the USFWS into obeying the very laws that they had
enacted to protect the red wolves and to protect individual landowners
from the ravages of these predators.
On Dec. 24, 2013, Jett Ferebee received a letter
from the USFWS telling that they had surveyed his farm looking for red
wolves and had found none. With that in mind and not wanting to
intentionally harm any red wolves, Ferebee hired a professional trapper
to trap coyotes on his farm. In less than three weeks he’d caught 10
canine animals and, in each instance, he had the USFWS visit his farm
and properly identify the animals.
The USFWS experts aided by Ferebee’s expert trapper
had positively identified the trapped animals as five red wolves (one
of these five was identified by the qualified trapper and released), one
canid that was collared and couldn’t be identified on site, three
identified hybrid red wolf/coyotes and one coyote. Since the USFWS had
stated that the entire North Carolina population of red wolves was only
60 animals, in less than three weeks the trapper had caught 10 percent
of the entire known red wolf population that was supposed to be in our
state on a farm that USFWS had claimed had no wolves.
When the US Fish And Wildlife Service was pushed
into obeying their own laws and regulations pertaining to the red
wolves, they wrote a letter to Jett Ferebee granting him the first (and
only) federal permit to legally take (kill) one of the red wolves that
they had not been able to trap and remove it from his property, as long
as the taking was done while trying to legally kill coyotes on his farm.
The following is from the official letter (Dated Feb. 6, 2014) from the U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service to Jett Ferebee:
“Dear Mr. Ferebee:
Based on the recent data we have reconsidered
our decision to authorize the take of red wolves on your property at
this time. On February 4, 2014, you requested that the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (Service) reconsider our position, as provided in a
letter dated December 24, 2013, denying you and/or your agents the
permission to remove red wolves from your property. That decision was
based on insufficient data demonstrating that red wolves were using your
property. At that time we also requested that if you engaged in coyote
control activities, following the State of North Carolina’s regulations,
and a wolf was incidentally trapped or killed that you notify us within
24 hours as dictated by the Service’s regulation at 50 C.F.R. 17.84.
“Since then, you have contacted us on four
different occasions to notify us that that a canid was trapped on your
property. I would like to express my gratitude for your prompt
communication of these incidents. Because of your timely communications,
our field biologists were able to come to your property and identify
the animals, two of which were in fact red wolves and were taken to our
captive management facility.”
In an attachment to the above USFWS letter, they state further details concerning the “take” permit.
“The last exception above states that in order
to apply, we must have abandoned efforts to capture the animal in
question. Regarding the canids you have documented using your property
since we removed wolves from your property on January 23, though we
cannot confirm that the animal is a wolf and we have not attempted to
capture it, we can state at this time given our other staffing
commitments and lack of access to actively trap on the property that we
are foreclosed from pursuing the animal on your property and in that
sense must abandon efforts to capture and relocate the animal ourselves.
Therefore, pursuant to the Service’s regulation at 50 C.F.R. 17.84, you
and your agents (e.g., co-owners of the property James R. Prewitt and
Daniel H. Woody) are granted permission to take this animal (should it
be a red wolf) by lethal means as long as the taking is in compliance
with any other applicable Federal, State, and local regulations.”
In his reply to the USFWS letter granting him the ”take” permit for a red wolf, Jett Ferebee states, “Thanks Leo. The letter will likely serve you better than me, but it is the right thing to do. I just wish ya’ll could trap and move the wolves again like was done in Texas. Hybridization is obviously a part of natural selection. For the safety and future of the red wolf, they just need to be relocated to a captive environment or an Island. You are a fine man and I am proud to know you.
“I truly believe the best interests of all parties were served. Now
the best course for the red wolf program can move forward without this
cloud over it. Science and wildlife management can be the issues, not
USFWS’s unwillingness to abide by the rules. I sincerely hope I never have to use that permit. I just need to save my farm.”
Since it has become known among several private
landowners within the five county core area of the availability of the
red wolves permit, these landowners have expressed their intentions to
follow Jett Freebee’s lead and try to have similar “take” permits issued
to themselves.
With a pending judgment in the Federal Court that
could ban all coyote hunting in the five county core area for the red
wolves and the issuance of the first permit to legally take a red wolf,
this may prove to be an interesting winter and spring for Eastern North
Carolina.
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