Gray Wolf News "The latest in the Wolf Wars"

[bearpaw]

Gray Wolf News
Rather than starting a new topic for every piece of wolf news that I receive almost on a daily basis, it will be easier to start a topic in which I post wolf headlines and wolf news on a continuing basis. If you tag this topic you will see it in your "Show new replies to your posts" every time I add a new Gray Wolf News story.



Two wolf relisting lawsuits and RMEF's letter on Yellowstone wolves
 
email December 4, 2012
 
Attached are two lawsuits that have been filed over wolf delisting in Wyoming. Both suits are attempting to put ALL wolves in the northern Rockies under full ESA protection. The first suit (2012 Wolf lawsuit) was filed in a DC court, while the second was filed in Denver.
 
I have been told that the USFWS has asked the DC court to transfer the first case to a WY court. Please note that this is everyone’s problem, not just Wyoming’s. All states and other effected parties need to intervene in both cases.
 
- [Dr.] Charles Kay
 

2012 Wolf Law Suit
(119 Kb 43 page pdf file)
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxTUA0p0wVj5UUN5NDc4N2F1b2M
 

Complaint_as_Filed-1
(267 Kb 50 page pdf file)
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxTUA0p0wVj5NFlWOXVLWXE3Mk0



David Allen Issues Letter on Yellowstone Park Wolves
Link:
http://tinyurl.com/dyyem73

Monday, December 3, 2012
 
Robert Ream, Chairman
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission
Helena, MT
 
Dear Mr. Ream,
 
We understand that Defenders of Wildlife and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) are currently running a campaign against Montana FWP for allowing hunting and trapping of wolves outside of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). As you know, these hunts are legal, necessary and scientifically sustainable. There is absolutely no science or rationale to support these groups belief that a special "no hunt" zone should be created outside of YNP. Further, we are not aware of any science or rationale to support the attempts of Defenders, GYC and other groups to create a distinction between "Yellowstone wolves" and wolves that exist within the tri-state region of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.
 
The attempt to establish a “buffer zone” for YNP wolves is in direct contrast to the original goal for the wolf reintroduction in the Northern Rocky Mountains (NRM). Never at any time was it planned that "Yellowstone wolves" would be granted amnesty from management once outside of YNP. This is a time when Defenders, GYC and others should be celebrating a successful recovery of the wolf population. However, it seems that there is no such satisfaction. Will there ever be? A substantial number of wolves throughout the three states have come from YNP. Are they to be given special protection status as well? Additionally, hundreds of animals including elk, deer, bighorn sheep, black bears, mountain lions and others are fitted with radio collars for scientific purposes and roam the wilds in and around YNP, but they are not excluded from hunting seasons outside the park. When harvested, the collars are returned to the management agency and the data is utilized. We urge all hunters to return collars to wildlife agencies.
 
During the recent lawsuits over delisting wolves in the NRM, Defenders, GYC and others strongly proclaimed that borders between states did not matter when considering wolf populations and wolf management. They claimed this so they could keep Montana, Idaho and Wyoming all tied together in the lawsuit. We were all told "an imaginary or arbitrary border or line had no distinction when considering wolf populations.” Now, all of sudden, the YNP border is relevant and any wolf close to it but outside of the park should be protected. It is obvious that Defenders, GYC and others simply wish to continue to protest state-based management of wolves, thus keeping a "wolf controversy alive" for the express purpose of soliciting for more donations.
 
The reality is Montana, Wyoming and Idaho are each required to manage wolves within a specific set of mandates. If those mandates are not adhered to, then the states run the risk of losing management control and having their wolf population placed back on the Endangered Species List. As it stands today, wolf numbers continue to be well above objective and in need of reduction. Montana, Wyoming and Idaho are not close to risking the greater wolf population of the NRM being relisted under the ESA, and that should be the common goal for all of us.
 
Those who protest the harvesting of the Yellowstone area wolves seem to gloss over the fact that the primary reason wolves are leaving Yellowstone is for prey. The substantial reduction of the northern Yellowstone elk herd requires these wolves to travel farther for prey. We sincerely wish that those who claim to "defend wildlife" felt some empathy for the thousands of elk that have been lost from the northern Yellowstone elk herd, not to mention the related economic losses. We continue to hear the cry for different science from these special interest groups. We submit that the real science is at work now through state-based management and these groups need to get on board and support it. We have wasted enough taxpayer time and money chasing special interest ideology.
 
We urge you not to alter or reduce the ability to continue the legal and ethical management, including hunting and trapping, of wolves surrounding the Yellowstone National Park border. Further, we urge our members to communicate their position on this important issue with you.
 
Thank you for your consideration.
 
Respectfully,
 
David Allen
President/CEO
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

[JODakota]

Will do bear paw!

[bearpaw]

State Needs to Justify Wolf Hunt
 
By Bob Allen December 4, 2012 - IPR
 
The Michigan legislature is moving closer to allow a hunting season for gray wolves. There are around 700 wolves in the Upper Peninsula.
 
If the legislature makes the wolf a game species, then wildlife officials will still have to justify that a hunt is necessary. And that it won’t harm wolf recovery.
 
Must Meet State Goal
 
Under state law, there can’t be a recreational wolf hunt for any old reason. Wildlife officials would have to show that a hunt is warranted. And that it would meet the goal of reducing wolf-human conflicts.
 
“We’ve never had a wolf hunt in Michigan. We don’t know this is exactly what will happen if we do the following steps,” says Adam Bump, a wildlife biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/bo4sdqj

[bearpaw]

Court strikes down lawsuit challenging trapping in wolf country
 
December 4, 2012 posted at Wolf Crossing
 
ALBUQUERQUE – A U.S. District Court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit alleging the director of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the chairman of the State Game Commission violated the federal Endangered Species Act by allowing trapping in the recovery area of the Mexican gray wolf.
 
U.S. Magistrate Lorenzo Garcia ruled that the environmental activist organization WildEarth Guardians failed to present facts showing the defendants’ actions directly or indirectly caused trappings or taking of wolves. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
 
Department Director Jim Lane, who was named in the lawsuit with State Game Commission Chairman Jim McClintic, hailed the decision as a sportsmen’s victory for “real conservationists,” state authority over wildlife management, and the integrity of the Endangered Species Act.
 
“We fought aggressively to defeat this frivolous lawsuit,” Lane said. “We are happy with the outcome. It’s unfortunate we had to spend hunters’, anglers’ and trappers’ dollars to win it rather than leveraging those same dollars toward on-the-ground conservation of New Mexico’s wildlife.”
 
Continued:
http://wolfcrossing.org/?p=663

[bearpaw]

Idaho Wolf Hunt
 
Email December 3, 2012
 
19 year old Devin Jones of Lewiston, ID  took advantage of an elk that had been harvested earlier by another party member that attracted  a wolf pack. He was successful at taking 2 Lobo’s with his great grandpa’s old 100 year old 30-30!

[Boss .300 winmag]

Those should make good rugs. And yes I would put them on thre floor where they belong. 

[bearpaw]

Gone hunting wolves
 
Neil LaRubbio Dec 03, 2012 High Country News
 
By the time you read this blog, I will be on my second day of hunting gray wolves in Montana. An old friend of mine in Livingston introduced me to some ranchers in Paradise Valley to write a story of their hunt. We will be trudging through a wilderness of snow on horseback, hoping to “get lucky”, you might say. Luck, I’ve found, is at least 50 percent of hunting anyway -- for wolves, it’s probably closer to 80 percent.
 
That’s not to say wolf hunters this year have been unsuccessful. Looking through wildlife agency websites for Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, hunters have recorded fairly significant kill numbers. All this occurs as wolf reintroduction, “the greatest success of the Endangered Species Act”, enters a new era -- one I'm hoping to explore in my story on the topic. The survival of America’s gray wolves now rests in the hands of state wildlife agencies and sportsmen, who have supplanted environmentalists as their diligent guardians.
 
Some statistics to date:
 
Hunters in Montana have harvested 84 wolves as of Thursday afternoon, out of a population of at least 650 statewide. Different this year compared to the last is that there is no statewide wolf harvest limit. In 2011, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks set a harvest quota of 220 wolves, but even though hunters had a 46-day extension, they only killed 166 wolves by the end of the season in mid-February. Another difference: This 2012 season allows trapping in Montana for the first time since wolves were delisted. From December 15 through February 28, trappers will be able to snatch three pelts apiece.
 
Idaho doesn’t have a state bag limit either, and their season starts earlier and ends later. Last year, with a population estimated around 746 wolves, hunters and trappers killed a combined 349. Trappers are typically more successful than hunters, but there are fewer of them, as Jason Husseman, regional wildlife biologist for Idaho Department of Fish and Game told me.  Roughly 1,000 trappers took the state's mandatory trapper license course this year, compared with over 100,000 hunters that head out into the woods, many of them looking for wolves. So while trapping may be an easier way to kill a wolf, there just aren’t as many people doing it … so far.
 
Wyoming is the state environmental groups worried about the most during the height of the wolf de-listing wars, and was the last state to get approval for a wolf hunt.  Wolf advocates worried the state would kill off their population with lax regulations. Depending on how you look at it, they may have had reason to fret. The state designated wolves “predatory animals” except for within four management units, plus Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Reservation. As predatory animals, wolves can be killed, year-round, without a license. On the other hand, some say the majority of Wyoming’s wolf population is located in the management units, which all have quotas, and the rest of the state isn’t inhabited by wolves. It’s tough to gauge who’s right at this point. So far 37 wolves have been harvested in the management units; the total quota for the units is 52. Outside the units, 19 wolves have been killed to date.
 
If you’re hankering to kill a wolf and you live outside one of these states, I'd recommend taking your gun to Idaho. They only charge non-residents $31.75 for a wolf tag. Montana's fee is $350 (compared to $19 for locals) and Wyoming charges $180 (residents pay just $18). Either way, you’re going to have a tough time. Wolves aren’t easy to spot. I’m sure I’m finding that out by now.
 
Source:
http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/gone-hunting-wolves

[bearpaw]

Wolf hunt may soon come to an end [Wisconsin]
 
By Sean Kirkby Monday, December 3, 2012 The Badger Herald
 
Wildlife officials have closed half of the state’s wolf hunting zones after hunters and trappers surpassed 100 wolf kills, which could mean Wisconsin’s inaugural organized wolf hunt season may end soon.
 
According to a statement, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources closed a wolf hunt zone Sunday in the northwest part of the state, bordering Lake Superior. The DNR has also closed two of the other six wolf hunt zones in the state.
 
As of Friday, hunters and trappers had killed 101 wolves of the 116 wolf quota, with 57 percent of wolves taken by trappers, according to DNR data. The season continues through the end of February or until hunters and trappers reach the limit.
 
Continued:
http://badgerherald.com/news/2012/12/03/wolf_hunt_may_soon_c.php

[bearpaw]

Reader's view: Wolf hunt shows lack of respect for wilderness
 
December 03, 2012 Duluth News Tribune by Cathy Miller
 
What’s going on? A killing frenzy? This wolf hunt is beyond disgusting and opened a door exposing abuse of power by politicians.
 
Wolves were removed from the endangered-species list in January and already are being trapped and shot. A four-month season is ongoing in Wisconsin, day and night, with trapping, electronic calling devices and bait. Possibly dogs, too, if the Dane County judge approves it Dec. 20.
 
Why? The bill authorizing the hunt reportedly was co-written by the Bear Hunter Association, Hunters’ Rights Group and Safari International. Gov. Scott Walker was elected with support from these groups. This seems like payback.
 
Continued:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/251509/group/Opinion/

[denali]

Wolf activity continues in Wedge pack area

By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press

Wolves are still active in northeast Washington even after state wildlife managers killed seven of the predators earlier this year.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reported wolf tracks observed Nov. 10 in the Wedge Pack area. The area is in northern Stevens County and is bordered by Canada and the Columbia and Kettle rivers.

Steve Pozzanghera, regional director of the department in Spokane, said data indicate two wolves are in the area, although where they’re coming from is unknown.

“We’ve had questions of ‘Does that mean these are remaining members of the Wedge pack that were not killed?’ and ‘Does that mean these are new dispersers into the area?’” Pozzanghera said. “The short answer is we don’t know.”

Len McIrvin, owner of the Diamond M Ranch in Laurier, Wash., where the Wedge pack attacked livestock last summer, said he saw fresh wolf tracks shortly after the state sharpshooter killed the pack members. He has continued to lose calves, he said, although no kills could be documented as wolf-caused in the rough country.

“The ones we found through the summer, I think was just kind of the Lord willing we found them,” he said, noting he’s observed mothers return with their udders drying up, indicating the loss of a calves.

McIrvin estimated he’s lost 40 calves, or 20 percent of the cattle in the area. He’s in the process of finishing fall roundup, and will soon have an exact total.

“It’s an opportunity for us to try again, and do better,” said Mitch Friedman, executive director of Conservation Northwest. “I don’t know that life often allows for quick re-dos of failures, and here we get a chance to do that.”

There’s half a year before ranchers can turn out calves onto public lands, Friedman said, and the tools are already available to help them, requiring earnest effort. Those options include turning out larger calves later, complete removal of carcasses as quickly as possible, wire and flagery at calving areas and range riders.

“Not every guy with a hat and horse is a range rider,” he said. “A range rider is trained and stays with that herd, keeps them bunched up 24-7.” Cow weights were above-average and not a single calf was lost in the Smackout Pack range rider pilot program this summer, Friedman said.

He expects his group to turn to the state Legislature next as it focuses on the Wedge pack killing and what policies should be for grazing on public land.

Jack Field, executive vice president of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association, has also heard reports of wolf sightings east of Enumclaw, Wash.

Field wants to ensure the department has tools to protect the ungulate population so that wolves don’t turn to livestock for their prey.

He expects Sen. Kevin Ranker, a Democrat from Orcas Island, Wash., and chair of the state senate’s Energy, Natural Resources and Marine Waters committee, will hold a fact-finding hearing and update in January. Ranker has expressed concern over killing the Wedge pack wolves.

Field said the biggest challenge is funding for the state’s wolf management plan.

“This cannot be something that’s funded out of the wildlife account off the backs of hundreds of sportsmen,” he said. “The entire population needs to share in the economic burden that species management and recovery brings.”

The department hopes to communicate with any rancher moving onto an allotment where wolves are present that tools are available such as range riders and use of radio collars to monitor wolf locations.

Turning out cattle in early June, at the same time there is a wild food source in the form of ungulates like deer, elk and moose reduces pressure on livestock, Pozzanghera said.

The agency has cost-share opportunities for operators, Pozzanghera said.

McIrvin said his ranch is using range riders and he and department workers have been working to provide an increased human presence.

Wolves preyed on cattle on his private property and state and federal lands he leases.

“I have never heard anything that would be helpful to stop losses other than what they did, take out the pack,” McIrvin said. “I don’t know what the next step would be until we go broke.”

[Ridgeratt]

Maybe not everyone on a horse and a hat is a range rider. But I have witnessed the McGirvins cowboys riding in weather that most of us would be sitting in a warm house or a truck. Usually a lone rider with a heeler dog. A lot of times a lot later at nite than I want to be setting a horse.

[bearpaw]

Subject:   FW: Wolf
Date:   Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:14:42 -0600
This wolf was shot Sunday in northern MN by a person that works with a friend of somebody named Chuck.

[NWBREW]

If that's real, that is one big wolf. This will be a good thread. 

[bearpaw]

Colville Tribe opens wolf hunting season on reservation
 
by Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review Dec. 4, 2012
 
Wolf hunting has arrived in Washington.
 
Although gray wolves are still listed by the state as an endangered species, the Colville Confederated Tribes have opened a wolf hunting season for tribal members on a portion of their reservation, according to the 2012 Tribal Member South Half Gray Wolf Regulations posted on the tribe's website.
 
Tribal officials aren't answering calls from the media, but Andy Walgamott of Northwest Sportsman magazine has put together a detailed report on this milestone in wolf management.
 
The Tribal Council approved a season that opened last week on the south half of the 1.4 million-acre reservation in Okanogan and Ferry Counties where at least two and possibly three packs roam.
 
Continued w/links to more info:
http://tinyurl.com/agp9lcx

[bearpaw]

Colvilles worry that wolves will hurt hunting
 
06 November 2011 NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press
 
AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. (AP) – The Colville Indian Tribes are worried that the state's proposed wolf management plan may hurt subsistence hunting by its members.
 
The tribes told members of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission on Thursday that a plan to restore at least five breeding pairs of wolves in Eastern Washington has the potential to reduce herds of elk, deer and moose on its reservation.
 
Tribal members harvest up to 1,000 deer, 400 elk and 50 moose each year, and worry a large increase in the number of wolves will increase competition for the animals.
 
“We have 60 percent unemployment on our reservation,” Joe Peone of the Colville Tribes Fish and Wildlife Department told the commission. “To be able to rely on subsistence hunting is critical.”
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/by3buhk