Gray wolf delisting a step closer to reality; Idaho hunting season scheduled

The decision to remove some gray wolf populations from protection under the Endangered Species Act is a step closer to actually happening.

The federal rule to delist packs in some Northern Rockies and Western Great Lakes states was published in the Federal Register last week and is scheduled to become effective May 2.

This will mean that wolf management will become a job for state and tribal wildlife agencies instead of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Idaho Fish and Game commissioners have already adopted dates for the wolf hunting season in the state and will set quotas once delisting takes effect.

"We have to move on and manage them similar to other big-game animals," Idaho Fish and Game Director Cal Groen said. " This is good news for wolves, elk, rural communities and hunters. I believe this action will help defuse the animosity and anger associated with wolves when we can manage wolves in concert with our other big game species."

The Fish and Wildlife Service will monitor the delisted wolf populations for a minimum of five years to ensure that they continue to sustain their recovery.  At the end of that time, it will be decided if relisting, continued monitoring or ending service monitoring is appropriate.

-- Kelly Burgess

Photo: Tracy Brooks/USFWS

Comments

[Darren Wicken]

When the government reintroduced the the wolf to Idaho back in 94. It would have been nice to do exactly that instead of introduce the gray wolf. Since they never actually lived there. They had to go and put the worlds largest dog instead of the smaller black timber wolf that did at one time live in the rocky mountains of Idaho. Witch was half the size as the gray wolf that we got from CANADA!!!!

[William H. Lentz, Jr]

There are many hunters, esp. elk hunters, that were against reintroduction of the wolf. Big game hunters and the Rocky Mountain Elk Founation spend valuable time and money to establish elk herds and keep existing herds at huntable levels. Reintroduction of the wolf in many cases has, according to my source in Northern Idaho, is dropping elk populations at alarming rates.
If it was wise to reintroduce the wolf into Yellowstone then is it wise to reintroduce the California Grizzly Bear back into California State Parks or in most of the state where they once thrived? I'm sure the folks in Ventura and L.A. Counties would like this. The rest of us would like to see them turned loose in San Fran as well.
It is good that humans are well-intending and compassionate - but are we not disrupting the natural cycle and true reality of nature by bringing back other predatory species or trying to save them?
Protection of the California mountain lion is connected to migratory deer numbers there at all time lows.

Bill Lentz
Cat Creek Outdoors

[Clint]

Donovan,
Are you suggesting we move humans out of Idaho? Montana? Wyoming? Perhaps just everyone West of the Rockies. The past is the past. It isn't coming back. It doesn't matter how many there were 150 years ago. Wolves need to fear man. It will keep both species safe.

[Brian George]

To Donovan Seymour,

Have you considered the fact that except for southwest Arizona and the eastern California desert, just about everywhere WAS wolf habitat including where you live, and doesn't give the people in the cities the right to dictate to rural America, that just because one lives in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, etc., that they have to have wolves living in their ranching and farming communities.

The Wolf is NOT endangered and Never was - there are well over 100,000 wolves in Canada now and always have been since the day GOD created them. The goal of re-establishing the wolves was to have a viable population that is part of the eco-system back in it's environment. That does not mean there should not be checks and balances to keep the wolf population at those levels. The population now is well over 10 TIMES the original agreement that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife service said they wanted. You as an environmentalist SHOULD BE celebrating that the fact that they have been recovered so successfully that they can and should be hunted.

If people in the cities really want a diversity of wildlife in rural America, then when a species is re-introduced, whether it is a FISH, BIRD, or MAMMAL, you NEED to be RESPECTFUL of PRIVATE PROPERTY rights and the corresponding introducing governmental agencies, need to stand by their original agreements. If they don't get the local residents to buy into a re-introduction, then eventually the three "S"s will prevail - SHOOT, SHOVEL & SHUTUP.

If you want long term success for the wolf, grizzly, etc., then you should want the species to managed so there is a huntable population and where the local communities have a say in the management, otherwise, they will survive over the long term. I realize folks that do not have any sort of background or exposure to rural communties, some of these concepts may be hard to grasp but that doesn't make them invalid.

[Donovan Seymour]

"The Fish and Wildlife Service will monitor the delisted wolf populations for a minimum of five years to ensure that they continue to sustain their recovery." what recovery will take place if they are being hunted for?

@TLMule, have you ever considered the fact that we moved in on their territory, its only right to let them have it back. Its on the fault of the humans that wolves move on your property where they most likely lived before settlers ever came to that part of the country. Oh and keep in mind the estimated number of wolves before settlers came and "exterminated" them was 400,000.

[TLMule]

In Idaho we are looking forward to delisting. There are too many wolves for the habitat to support. Wolves belong in the wilderness, not in subdivisions! Our horse will be crippled the rest of her life from a wolf attack. Friends have lost horses and dogs. Tourists have had their tents surrounded in the night, families out hiking have been stalked. The wolves are becoming habituated and are moving down into where people live. Genetic connectivity has been proven, its time to delist.