Idaho F&G Announces Wolves Major Cause Of Elk Kills
November 28, 2008
Reports coming out of Northern Idaho say that Fish and Game Deputy Director Jim Unsworth is blaming the gray wolf as the main reason for a 13% per year reduction in cow elk in the Lolo Hunting Zone. Another F&G biologist, George Pauley, states that at least 87% of the elk in this region needs to survive each year in order to sustain an elk herd. At present that survival rate is estimated at 75%.
And with this information, I have some questions. The first one and most obvious is what took IDFG so long to make an official announcement, assuming Unsworth’s announcement is official and not some rogue event?
One report from The Olympian said:
The agency estimates cow elk in a remote area designated as the Lolo Hunting Zone have dwindled by as much as 13 percent each year. A recent study of radio-collared cow elk indicates that for the most part, wolves are to blame, Fish and Game says.
My second question now becomes, for how many years have they determined, or better yet, known, that the cow elk have been dwindling at such a rate? Which leads me to my final question.
Why hasn’t IDFG done something about this problem and here’s the reason I ask? Back last January 25, 2008, I reported that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while waiting for the formal delisting of the gray wolf, announced that it was easing some of the wolf management restrictions. Among those easements was one that allowed F&G to protect herds of elk.
While much of the west in and around the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone Park wait impatiently for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to formally announce the removal of the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act, the USFWS announced that until that event takes place, they are easing some of the restrictions on the wolf in order to give flexibility to states to implement actions to protect wild herds of elk, deer and moose, protect livestock, private property and for public safety. The states involved are Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.
At the time of this report, Ed Bangs, USFWS wolf recovery leader, said there were no areas in the West where wolves where destroying elk herds but wanted to be prepared.
Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says he knows of no areas where wolves are destroying elk herds in the west. That is probably debatable by some, especially concerning the elk herd in Yellowstone Park.
The point to all this is that USFWS and the three states, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, appear to be approaching this entire wolf delisting event with an attitude of being prepared and creating tools to be able to use in order to stave off any problems that may arise that would put elk, deer or moose herds in jeopardy from wolves. Reasonable people shouldn’t find a problem with that. Unreasonable people, which is what we are dealing with constantly with wolf recovery efforts, can only embellish facts and blow things completely out of proportion.
Well, it appears that we have our first official announcement of wolves destroying an elk herd in the Lolo region and the question I have is what is being done about it?
To the best of my recollections in researching through past articles, it is my understanding that even when Judge Donald Molloy ruled to issue the temporary injunction that placed the wolf back on the Endangered Species Act list, this ruling did not eliminate the eased restrictions USFWS had announce that gave F&G more flexibility to handle issues like this.
Finally an announcement from Idaho Fish and Game that wolves are destroying one elk herd. How long they have known this remains to be seen. IDFG has the flexibility granted them by the USFWS to protect that elk herd. Now they need to do something about it.
Tom Remington
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Sooner or later, vigilante sportsmen tired of all this hemhawing and bickering of who should be in charge of managing this pack of wild mangy mongrels are going to take matters into their own hands – before the elk, deer and moose herds that took decades to rebuild are lost. If the wolf lovers want war, then war it is…and sportsmen hunters, who have footed the bill for conservation, are not going to run up the white flag and surrender.
I have a feeling that wolves are about to bite the bullet. And it is past time for that action.
Toby Bridges
LOBO WATCH
Missoula, MT
I am opposed to the illegal introduction of the non native wolf introduced in Idaho, and surrounding states. I support hunting them, and management practices that will reduce their numbers aggressively.
The Elk population is systematically being wiped out in Idaho, not to mention the other large game animals. It has taken 80 years to bring the elk population to their greatest numbers in recorded history, only to have them wiped out in a few short years.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, along with the Idaho Fish and Game are not acting in our best interests. The wolf needs to be hunted now! Not next year, or the year after that. Do your part to act on behalf of wildlife, after all, We the hunters have been financing it for many years.
I have been on the offensive at my channel on You Tube Check it out, and join the fight http://www.youtube.com/user/Rockholm66
The problem is that government is never the answer, only the problem. Organizations like The Sierra Club and others have no clue. They sit on their butts and take in huge sums of money to see the whole Northwest as well as the rest of America go back to the wild without regard to what they will eat when the want to have a nice steak. I know they think they just have to go to the meat market to pick some up without any knowledge of where it comes from. I’m sorry, but you just can’t fix stupid, it has to be eradicated.
Yes something needs to be done and soon before everyone takes it into there own hands people are tired of F&G dragging there feet in our area which is in northern Idaho around Priest Lake and surrounding areasI myself know of 5-6 different packs running and also when there are meetings scheduled for the public put it in the local paper and not in the spokane paper in a little ad .thats bull If something isn,t done the Hunters and Public will Fix the problem that the Fish and Game created
John Scribner UP NORTH ARCHERY
Priest River ,Idaho
Amen John…
The biggest problem with most F&G departments is that they’re too busy “telling people” how it’s going to be…and “not listening to” those who already know how it is. And, in this case (wolves killing our elk) F&G can talk all they want…it’ll take more than talk to take care of this problem.
Toby Bridges
LOBO WATCH
Missoula, MT
Ed Bangs is a mindless idiot if he isn’t aware of anywhere in the West where wolves are detroying elk herds.
Keep in mind, Bangs is a “Part Of The Problem”…and while he often tries to pretend that he’s “sportsman sensitive” and spouts off something about the need for shooting a few wolves…he is NOT “Part Of The Solution”. He’s one of those pedal to the metal “wildlife experts” who unleashed this equivalent of a wildlife virus or cancer upon the big game herds of the Northern Rockies and upper Midwest…simply because they were hell bent to be a “Part” of some “successful” wildlife reintroduction. They way they see it…it’s just a feather in their caps!
Now, I think it’s time for hunters to give them the boot on the other end.
Toby Bridges
LOBO WATCH
DID EVERYONE QUITE BEING VOCAL ABOUT THE WOLVES i,M NOT OUR AREA WHICH WE HAVE HUNTED THE LAST 8-10 YEARS NOW HAVE AT LEAST 4-6 WOLVES RUNNING IN A PACK .WE HAVE NEVER SEEN THEM IN THERE BEFORE WE SEEN THEM -HEARD THEM ,AND THEY EVEN CAME RIGHT INTO CAMP AT NIGHT AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED THE SEASON IS STILL OPEN TO HE– WITH WHAT F&G SAY OR ANY ONE ELSE THE ONE AREA WHERE WE ALWAYS HAD ELK IS NOW VACANT SCRIB1@COPPER.NET