Gray Wolf News "The latest in the Wolf Wars"

[bearpaw]

Dec 22, 2012
 
Idaho hunters kill fewer wolves so far this season
 
by Associated Press December 22, 2012
 
Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials say hunters have killed 116 wolves this hunting season through Dec. 15, about the halfway point of the 2012-2013 wolf hunting season.
 
The Lewiston Tribune reports that's down from 162 wolves killed by hunters at this time last year.
 
Jay Crenshaw of Fish and Game says it's not possible to draw many conclusions from year to year on harvest rates because Idaho hunters haven't been pursuing wolves long enough for biologists to establish trends.
 
So far this wolf trapping season, which started Nov. 15, hunters have taken 10 wolves.
 
Last season, hunters killed 255 wolves and trappers took another 124.
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Wisconsin wolf hunting, trapping season to end Sunday
 
Associated Press December 22, 2012
 
MADISON — Wisconsin's inaugural wolf season is set to close Sunday afternoon, as hunters and trappers are on the verge of reaching the statewide quota.
 
Five of the six wolf-harvest zones were already closed. The last one shuts down Sunday at 5 p.m.
 
The state Department of Natural Resources reported that hunters and trappers in Zone 3 are within one wolf of the quota. DNR spokesman Kurt Thiede said the agency will close the zone to avoid overharvest.
 
The wolf harvest quota for Zone 3 was 18 wolves. The 17th wolf was harvested Friday.
 
The overall goal was to harvest 116 wolves during this year's hunt, which began Oct. 15. It was set to close Feb. 28 or when harvest goals were reached.
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Sponsors defend Fort St. John wolf hunt contest
 
Energeticcity.ca Dec 21, 2012
 
In response to questions and comments that have arisen over the past month, the North Peace Rod and Gun Club is defending the local wolf hunt contest it sponsors. "This contest does not jeopardize the sustainability of wolf populations," it says in a written statement. "The objective is to reduce their numbers and predation impacts on domestic and wild animals in our region."
 
The club states that by reducing wolf populations by hunting, it intends to "reduce both agricultural and wildlife losses".
 
"Residents in the Peace Region are routinely seeing packs of 15-25 wolves up here," it writes. "Wolves are effective and opportunistic predators that have had serious impacts on livestock, on the abundance of wildlife,and on domestic pets near urbanized areas."
 
It maintains that the distribution and abundance of wolves in the region is growing, partially due to increasing development in the area.
 
"It appears wolves are benefiting from large scale landscape alterations that have modified wildlife habitat in some areas. These changes can reduce cover for wildlife and at the same time increase access for wolves due to roads, seismic lines, and other linear developments. This gives the wolves an unnatural advantage," it argues.
 
The contest, which is running in its third year, is currently under scrutiny by Pacific Wild, a conservation group that has hired lawyers to try and prove the contest is illegal. It believes the contest is a "lottery scheme", saying it should require a licence from the province to be legal.
 
The Rod and Gun Club maintains that it operates within rules of provincial legislation and regulations for hunting and gaming, and all contestants must have a valid hunting licence. They must also stick to the three bag limit currently in place. Previously,  Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resources Operations, has been quoted as saying it does not break any provincial wildlife regulations, and provincial gaming officials have said it does not need a permit as it is skill-based.
 
There are prizes for the both the largest and smallest wolves, as well as a "hidden" category to encourage hunters to bring in all they've caught for an accurate number. The most ever brought in in one year is 13.
 
Source (note: the website had a "stack overflow" - so posting the whole story.)
http://tinyurl.com/ca3w54y

[CementFinisher]

  wold contest right on 

[bearpaw]

Dec 24, 2012
 
Colville Tribe begins wolf hunt
 
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online! December 22, 2012
 
Colville Tribal members are now able to hunt wolves in their reservation in Washington state, with a quota of nine wolves.
 
The tribe authorized the wolf hunt because wolves are believed to be having a negative impact on deer and elk herds, which are important in providing winter meat for tribal members.
 
To learn more, click on the link below.
 
The Star
http://tinyurl.com/cl6jwkl
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Wolf restoration in Pacific West?
 
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online! December 22, 2012
 
The confirmation of a single wolf in California has provided inspiration for wolf advocates to form a 25-organization alliance committed to recovering wolves in the Pacific states.
 
Here's the announcement from the Center for Biological Diversity:
 
SACRAMENTO, Calif.: "Twenty-five wildlife conservation, education and protection organizations in California, Oregon and Washington today announced the formation of an alliance committed to recovering wolves across the region. The Pacific Wolf Coalition envisions populations of wolves restored across their historic habitats in numbers that will allow them to re-establish their critical role in nature and ensure their long-term survival. The announcement of the Pacific Wolf Coalition coincides with the one-year anniversary of the first wolf, OR-7, in California in nearly 90 years.
 
Wolves are making a comeback in the Pacific West. Here, as elsewhere in the lower 48, wolves were driven to regional extinction decades ago. The Pacific Wolf Coalition's mission is to ensure wolf recovery in the West. "The Pacific Wolf Coalition formed to unify efforts to restore wolf populations here in our region and to demonstrate that wolves and people can coexist," said Josh Laughlin with Cascadia Wildlands. "Working together we can give wolves a fighting chance to naturally return to their native lands in the western states."
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/c38bz3c
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The Economist: The Call of the Wild
 
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online! December 22, 2012
 
The Economist reports on wolf recovery in America and Europe, and human attitudes about wolves over time.
 
Click on the link below to read this feature.
 
The Economist
http://tinyurl.com/cfvfx2o
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Impasse for wolf conservation in France?
 
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online! December 22, 2012
 
The Guardian reports on the conflict involving wolf conservation and livestock production in France, where wolves were re-established in 1992. A wolf population of 250 adults is believed responsible for killing 5,000 sheep last year, and the conflict over wolf management continues.
 
To learn more, click on the link below.
 
The Guardian
http://tinyurl.com/a9yk5gw
 
Increasing the number of dogs, protective fences and shepherds makes no difference. Nor do the warning shots sanctioned by local government decrees (133 this year alone) to keep predators at a safe distance. Even selective culls (11 animals shot in 2012) have no effect. The wolf, which reappeared in France uninvited in 1992, seems determined to stay.
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Italian Wolves Prefer Pork to Venison
 
Dec. 20, 2012 - Science Daily
 
Some European wolves have a distinct preference for wild boar over other prey, according to new research.
 
Scientists from Durham University, UK, in collaboration with the University of Sassari in Italy, found that the diet of wolves was consistently dominated by the consumption of wild boar which accounted for about two thirds of total prey biomass, with roe deer accounting for around a third.
 
The study analysed the remains of prey items in almost 2000 samples of wolf dung over a nine year period and revealed that an increase in roe deer in the wolf diet only occurred in years when boar densities were very low. In years of high roe deer densities, the wolves still preferred to catch wild boar.
 
The results are published in the journal PLOS ONE.
 
Continued:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121220143740.htm

[bearpaw]

Dec 25, 2012
 
Federal judge merges lawsuits challenging Wyoming's wolf management plan
 
By BEN NEARY - Associated Press December 25, 2012
 
CHEYENNE, Wyoming — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has merged two lawsuits filed by separate coalitions of groups challenging the federal government's recent transfer of wolf management authority to the state of Wyoming.
 
Judge Amy Berman Jackson consolidated the lawsuits Friday. The lead group in one lawsuit is the Defenders of Wildlife, while the lead in the other is the Humane Society of the United States.
 
A third similar lawsuit filed by another coalition is pending in federal court in Denver.
 
All the groups generally argue Wyoming's management plan, which allows wolves to be shot on sight in most of the state, is insufficient to protect the animals.
 
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, however, said last week in an interview with The Associated Press that he regards the state's takeover of wolf management from the federal government in October as one of the state's major accomplishments of the year. He credited U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar with working with the state to turn over wolf management.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/cp89x76
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Editorial: Gray wolf hunt poses no threat to species' recovery
 
Dec. 24, 2012 Battle Creek Enquirer
 
A wolf hunting season in Michigan would pose little threat to the species, and would likely enhance its recovery. Wolf advocates, while understandably suspicious, would do well to drop their opposition and focus their energy on preserving wolf habitat.
 
Lawmakers threw Michigan into an emotional debate already roiling in states to our west when it passed a bill on Dec. 14 designating the wolf as a game species.
 
The legislation, awaiting Gov. Rick Snyder’s likely signature, authorizes the Natural Resources Commission to create a wolf hunting season and establishes an advisory board to examine wolf management options.
 
Hunters are unlikely to see a season soon, and even then the season will have very limited quota and a license lottery, but that has done little to blunt the emotions of its opponents.
 
The Republican-controlled Legislature didn’t help matters when it passed the bill in a lame-duck session with several controversial measures in rapid-fire fashion over the futile objections of Democrats.
 
Its timing couldn’t have been worse, either, coming days after Yellowstone National Park’s best-known wolf was shot and killed by a hunter after wandering outside the park’s boundaries.
 
Continued (2 pages):
http://tinyurl.com/dxzqrc3

[bearpaw]

Dec 26, 2012
 
Idaho Wolf Hunt Count Low
 
By Benito Baeza Dec. 24, 2012 KLIX 1310
 
LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials say hunters have killed 116 wolves this hunting season through Dec. 15, about the halfway point of the 2012-2013 wolf hunting season. The Lewiston Tribune reports that’s down from 162 wolves killed by hunters at this time last year.
 
Jay Crenshaw of Fish and Game says it’s not possible to draw many conclusions from year to year on harvest rates because Idaho hunters haven’t been pursuing wolves long enough for biologists to establish trends. So far this wolf trapping season, which started Nov. 15, hunters have taken 10 wolves. Last season, hunters killed 255 wolves and trappers took another 124.
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Mountain lion, coyote, bobcat caught in wolf traps first week of inaugural season
 
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS December 26, 2012
 
HAMILTON, Montana — Montana wildlife officials say two mountain lions, a coyote and a bobcat were captured in wolf traps in the first week of the state's inaugural trapping season.
 
Another mountain lion was caught in a furbearer trap.
 
Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife management section supervisor George Pauley says that is to be expected even though trappers are taught how to prevent capturing other animals.
 
Pauley says trappers are required to report when they capture animals other than wolves and must release them. In the case of a trapped mountain lion, the trapper is encouraged to contact FWP for help.
 
The Ravalli Republic reports (http://bit.ly/V4v91 ) seven wolves have been trapped statewide as of Sunday. A total of 102 have been killed in this year's hunting and trapping season.
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Wolf hunting in Wis. closes for season
 
by Dan Kraker, Minnesota Public Radio December 24, 2012
 
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Wisconsin closed the last of its six wolf hunting zones on Sunday evening after reaching its target quota.
 
The hunt had been scheduled to continue through the end of February. But in a statement, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says officials will analyze hunter and trapper success rates to help draft permanent rules for the long-term management of the state's wolf population.
 
Wisconsin officials have said they want to reduce the state's wolf population from around 850 to 350.
 
Minnesota's late season for wolf hunting and trapping, meanwhile, remains open in the northwest corner of the state. The east central and northeast zones have already closed.
 
So far in Minnesota, hunters and trappers have killed 326 wolves. The target harvest is 400, out of an estimated statewide population of around 3,000.
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Wolf hunting: 'Every day I feel this weight, this heaviness'
 
By Ron Meador 12/25/12 Minn Post
 
Collette Adkins Giese, of Blaine, prepared the lawsuit that the Center for Biological Diversity and Howling for Wolves brought to stop Minnesota’s new trapping and hunting seasons on wolves. Their request for an injunction was turned down by the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Oct. 10, and by the Minnesota Supreme Court on Oct. 26. Wolf hunting began Nov. 3. She describes how she got into her work and her reaction to this year's defeats:
 
All my life I’ve known I wanted wildlife protection to be part of my work. I just wasn’t sure how.
 
Before I went to law school I got a master’s in wildlife conservation. My undergraduate was biology and environmental studies, and while I was going to law school I was also working on a PhD in conservation biology – I’m all-but-dissertation on that.
 
Most of my career focus has been on reptiles and amphibians. I’m sort of grandfathered in on wolves because of my long experience, but my actual job title at CBD is “herpetofauna staff attorney” and I spend most of my time working on habitat protection and recovery plans for amphibians and reptiles.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/c52xtxj
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Environmentalists to sue over proposed capture of wayward wolves
 
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS December 26, 2012
 
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — Environmentalists are filing another lawsuit over the federal government's handling of endangered Mexican gray wolves, this one seeking to stop a policy that calls for the capture of any wolves that cross the border into New Mexico and Arizona.
 
The Center for Biological Diversity Wednesday filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over a recent decision that the group says gives the agency authority to catch any wayward wolves and put them into a captive-breeding program, return them to where they came from or relocate them into a designated Mexican wolf recovery area.
 
The group says Mexico recently released nine Mexican gray wolves near the U.S. border in the Sierra Madre, and wolves from the northern Rocky Mountains could make their way south at any time.
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Southern Ontario man fined $1,000 for unlawful wolf hunt
 
Hunting Wolves requires a licence in Ontario
 
Net Newsledger December 26, 2012
 
DRYDEN – A southern Ontario man has been fined $1,000 for unlawfully hunting wolf. Neil Whitmore of Rockwood pleaded guilty and was fined $1,000 for hunting wolf without a licence. The wolf he harvested was seized and forfeited to the Crown.
 
Court was told that on October 18, 2012, while on routine patrol, conservation officers contacted Whitmore at his hunting party camp on the side of Segise Road, north of Kenora. A wolf that Whitmore had shot dead in the area earlier that day was lying in the bush behind his hunt camp. Whitmore told officers that he did not have the required game hunting seal to affix to the wolf, but was waiting for another member of his hunting party to come and affix his seal to Whitmore’s wolf.
 
Party hunting of wolves is not permitted in Ontario. Whitmore’s rifle was seized by the officers and will be returned once his fine is paid.
 
Justice of the Peace Daisy Hoppe heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice, Dryden, on December 18, 2012.
 
For further information on hunting regulations, please consult the 2012-2013 Hunting Regulations Summary, available at ServiceOntario/Government Information Centres, from licence issuers and at ontario.ca/hunting

[ICEMAN]

Party hunting of wolves is not permitted in Ontario. Whitmore’s rifle was seized by the officers and will be returned once his fine is paid.
 

Wow, lenient.... pay the fine, get your rifle back after illegally taking a wolf? How big is the fine?

[bearpaw]

Party hunting of wolves is not permitted in Ontario. Whitmore’s rifle was seized by the officers and will be returned once his fine is paid.
 

Wow, lenient.... pay the fine, get your rifle back after illegally taking a wolf? How big is the fine?

Did you miss the headline? 

[ICEMAN]

Yes....

Ok, not so lenient....

[bearpaw]

Dec 27, 2012
 
Hunters take 64 wolves in Wyoming
 
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online! December 26, 2012
 
Hunters harvested 41 wolves in Wyoming trophy game hunt this year, with the season set to close Dec. 31. In addition to the wolves harvested in the trophy game areas, an additional 23 wolves were taken in Wyoming's predator zone.
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Wyo. Game and Fish closes hunt area after local quota met, hunters take 40 since October
 
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS December 27, 2012
 
CHEYENNE, Wyoming — A wolf hunt area northwest of Cody is closed now that hunters have killed the local limit of four wolves.
 
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department closed Hunt Area One on Wednesday.
 
Wyoming's first wolf hunting season since the federal government reintroduced wolves to the Yellowstone ecosystem in the 1990s is almost over. The season is scheduled to end Monday.
 
The statewide limit for the hunt season is 52 wolves. As of Wednesday, hunters had killed 40 wolves since the season began in October.
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Two of three wolf lawsuits merged
 
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online! December 26, 2012
 
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has merged two of the three lawsuits filed over the removal of federal protection for wolves in Wyoming.
 
Each lawsuit was filed by a coalition of groups, with Defenders of Wildlife and the Humane Society of the United States taking the lead.
 
A third lawsuit was filed in federal court in Colorado.
 
See link below for more info:
http://tinyurl.com/cp89x76
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Group will sue feds over wolf trapping
 
Let imperiled animals roam, center says
 
By Brandon Loomis The Republic Thu Dec 27, 2012
 
An environmental group has notified federal authorities that it will sue to block them from trapping wolves that wander into Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico or the northern Rocky Mountains.
 
On Wednesday, the Center for Biological Diversity announced its intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over a 2011 rule it adopted allowing agents to trap and relocate wolves wandering north of Interstate 40 or south of Interstate 10. Those areas are outside the agency’s Mexican gray wolf recovery zone — a 4.4 million-acre swath centered in Arizona’s Apache National Forest and New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, where reintroduced wolves are considered experimental under the Endangered Species Act.
 
Outside the recovery zone, wolves enjoy fuller protection as an endangered species. The group asserts that this means they should be allowed to roam “perfectly good wolf habitat” regardless of where they originated.
 
“Despite that full protection, the Fish and Wildlife Service surreptitiously granted itself a permit to remove wolves from those areas,” said Michael Robinson, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. The group is challenging the rule in part because it was made without public involvement.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/ck2pen3
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Who says hunting wolves in Wisconsin is easy? Not me
 
by Patrick Durkin December 27, 2012 State Journal
 
MEDFORD -– A dogwood branch bent backward against my truck’s windshield as I rolled slowly down a two-track in the Chequamegon National Forest and then sprung loose, slapping my cheek through the open window.
 
Served me right, I guess. I saw at a glance those weren’t wolf tracks in the 4-inch snow nearby, but I leaned out anyway for a closer look and never saw the slap coming.
 
Call that branch-slap a reality check. Just because I had been lucky enough to draw a wolf tag for Wisconsin’s first regulated wolf season, there was no guarantee my luck would hold once I started hunting and setting traps for them.
 
Then again, maybe my hopes were inflated by all the tavern talk about underestimated wolf numbers, wolf tracks outnumbering deer tracks, and wolves replacing whitetails on every trail-camera photo from the Northwoods.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/dxhdynw
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Not crying wolf
 
Thursday, December 27, 2012 By Lisa McCormack Stowe Today
 
Wolf sighting raises question: are they back?
 
Have wolves returned to Vermont after being extinct here for more than a century?
 
A state wildlife biologist says it’s possible, though unlikely.
 
Meanwhile, a Stowe woman is certain she spotted a wolf last month. And, the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife recently received a report of a possible wolf sighting here.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/c37chpn

[bearpaw]

Dec 29, 2012
 
Alone or in packs, wolves make news
 
Lost pup, confirmed packs and sheep deaths topped wildlife news
 
Friday, December 28, 2012 By KATHERINE WUTZ Idaho Mountain Express
 
Three wolf packs were confirmed living in the Wood River Valley this year, one of which may  contain the remnants of the famed Phantom Hill wolf pack.
 
Remote cameras set by field crew members of the Wood River Wolf Project captured images of three separate and well-established packs throughout the county.
 
Project manager Suzanne Stone said in August that the remote cameras allowed the project to not only confirm that there were packs in the county, but that two of those packs were breeding.
 
The first pack found was the Warm Springs Pack, confirmed in June when crews began hunting for a pack that lost a pup on Warm Springs Road northwest of Ketchum. Campers had picked up the pup on Memorial Day weekend, and crews began to hunt for the pup’s family.
 
The pack has at least two adults and several pups.
 
The second pack is the Little Wood Pack, which has been living in the southern Pioneer Mountains near Carey. Idaho Wildlife Services killed two members of the pack after recorded sheep depredations, but the pack still contained two to three adults in August.
 
The third pack, known as the Pioneer Pack, was the last pack located. This pack encountered Gooding rancher John Faulkner’s sheep in the Lake Creek drainage north of Ketchum on July 3 and killed four sheep.
 
Continued:
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005145477
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1st wolf hunting season nearly over in Wyoming; future uncertain as lawsuits are pending
 
By CHRISTINE PETERSON - Casper Star-Tribune December 29, 2012
 
CASPER, Wyoming — He spends most of his fall outside in the mountains, so finding a wolf was not a matter of if, but when.
 
Like most hunters, Joe Hargrave bought a wolf tag to put in his pocket just in case; he wasn't wolf hunting, specifically. Hargrave had been elk hunting in early October when he saw wolves lying in a meadow several miles away. It took three hours to sneak up on the pack of seven. Waiting in the trees, he chose one and shot.
 
On Oct. 5, just four days after the season opened, Hargrave, a Dubois taxidermist and outfitter, became one of Wyoming's first hunters to legally kill a wolf since 1974.
 
"It was pretty neat to be able to hunt them because they're a magnificent animal," Hargrave said. "I like to see them in the wild just like elk, moose and everything else. It is nice to be able to have the opportunity to hunt them."
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/bn7udb4
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Wyoming’s first wolf hunt soon to close
 
By Ralph Maughan On December 29, 2012 The Wildlife News
 
Hunt will probably end below quota; but many more wolves killed in state’s wolves-are-just-vermin-zone-
 
Wyoming first wolf hunt ends Dec. 31. 2012.  Wyoming opted for a much less ambitious/less-destructive-to-wolves hunt compared to neighboring Idaho and Montana. Unlike its neighbors, Wyoming has a wolf maximum kill quota and a relatively short hunt. However, Wyoming also has (probably) far fewer wolves than Montana or Idaho.
 
As of Dec. 28, 41 wolves had been killed in the hunt. That is eleven short of the quota of 52.  The state also has sub-quotas by means of quotas for wolf hunt areas. Most of the hunt areas are already closed.  At the end of last year (2011), it was estimated there were 328 wolves in Wyoming. However, hunting in Yellowstone and Grand Teton Parks is not allowed. Neither is hunting allowed on the large Wind River Indian Reservation unless the tribes set a hunt, and they didn’t.  In principle that left about 200 wolves subject to the hunt in NW Wyoming where most of the wolves live.  As a result the loss of 41 or so wolves will probably not reduce the wolf population after pups are born next April.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/c8cvkb5
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Assessing the wolf hunt
 
December 28, 2012 By Rick Schuh, WHBY
 
Wisconsin’s first wolf hunting season ended more than two months early, after hunters reached the 116 wolf harvest cap last the weekend. The hunt, which began October 15th, and was scheduled to run through February. Adrian Wydeven, a mammalian ecologist with the Department of Natural Resources and a wolf expert, said he thought hunting wolves would be more of a challenge, but the hunters and trappers did their homework on how to scout and track the animals. “I guess we had higher rates than some people had expected, that they were finding wolves more readily thought would be the case,” he said. “Hunters and trappers seem to be learning how to hunt and trap wolves.”
 
Wydeven said between now and next season, DNR staffers will look at ways to improve the wolf hunting season. That includes coming up with rules that would allow the use of dogs A judge banned hunting dogs this year, because of a lack of regulations. “The proposal the department is making is from the end of December, through the wolf hunting and trapping season, and then through the end of March,” he said. “People could potentially use hounds, if the courts allow the DNR to allow the use of hounds, and if the public supports that.”
 
The DNR is collecting tissue and teeth samples from wolves that were killed during this year’s season, in order to learn more about the state’s wolves. “We’ll do DNA assessment, which we’ll use in future population assessments,” Wydeven said. In addition, the agency will be sending surveys to hunters and trappers who participated in the inaugural season.
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Snyder signs bill allowing wolf hunts in Michigan
 
by Kathleen Gray Detroit Free Press Dec 28, 2012   
 
Gray wolves have made such a comeback in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that they’re on the verge of being hunted once again.
 
Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill late Friday that designates the wolves as a game animal and authorizes the Natural Resources Commission to set a hunting season for the animals.
 
Gray wolves were put on the endangered species list in 1973 when the population in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula had dwindled to six on the isolated Isle Royale. With the designation, the population had grown to nearly 700 by 2011.
 
The wolves were removed from the endangered species list in January, but only the Department of Natural Resources is allowed to manage the wolf population, which has begun to encroach upon U.P. towns.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/d8xtkr2

[ribka]

Thanks for posting and keeping this on the front burner for sportsmen

[bearpaw]

4 or more days out of the week I get news updates on wolves, I should have started a topic like this long ago to keep people abreast of what's going on. Much easier than posting individual topics and it's all in one place.

[denali]

Wolf hunting and trapping can resume near Yellowstone National Park after a Montana judge on Wednesday blocked the state from shutting down the practice.

full story:

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/judge-blocks-wolf-season-closure-near-yellowstone/article_7ad60c84-3900-572c-9be8-20fdc7810153.html#ixzz2GsILLanI

[bearpaw]

Dec 30, 2012
 
Wolf declared a game species
 
Hunting season may be established
 
December 30, 2012 John Pepin - The Mining Journal
 
MARQUETTE - Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill late Friday reclassifying gray wolves as a game species and authorizing the Michigan Natural Resources Commission to establish a hunting season for the once endangered species in Michigan.
 
"Wolves have made a dramatic recovery in Michigan with a current population around 700 animals, with almost all of that population residing in the central and western Upper Peninsula," said state Sen. Tom Casperson, who introduced the Senate bill Snyder signed. "Wolves need to be managed along with other species, and management strategies should include the option of a game season."
 
The NRC, the seven-member appointed rulemaking body for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, is now able to issue orders establishing wolf hunting seasons in the state. The NRC would also dictate methods of take, bag limits and other provisions of wolf hunting or trapping seasons.

[bearpaw]

Dec 31, 2012
 
Controlling critters led 2012 outdoors efforts
 
Public land, wildlife managers had hands full with predators, appeals, tragedies
 
By Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review December 30, 2012
 
The spotlight was on predators in 2012, and so were the nets, traps and crosshairs in many cases throughout the Inland Northwest.
 
The Spokane Tribe sparked one debate on predator management by proposing a bounty on walleye. Tribal members were asked to help reduce numbers of the non-native fish in Lake Roosevelt by targeting the walleye in their Spokane Arm spawning areas.
 
“It’s a food pyramid thing,” explained Brian Crossley, the tribe’s fish program manager. “The prey base always has to be higher density than the predator base. Right now, the pyramid is upside down.”
 
The walleye problem has not been resolved, but Washington state fisheries managers joined with the Kalispel Tribe for a more aggressive effort to draw the line on northern pike invading the Pend Oreille River. Using gillnets, tribal crews hit a goal of removing about 5,700 northern pike – 87 percent of the pike estimated to be in the Box Canyon Reservoir area.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/byhjjq6
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Wyoming's wolf hunting season ends Monday; Hunters have killed 43 as of Friday afternoon
 
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS December 31, 2012
 
CHEYENNE, Wyoming — Wyoming's wolf hunting season ends Monday.
 
Hunters are allowed to kill a total of 52 wolves. Hunters had taken 43 by Friday afternoon, the latest update available from the state.
 
It's Wyoming's first wolf hunting season since the federal government reintroduced wolves to the Yellowstone ecosystem in the 1990s.
 
Besides those taken during hunting season, 25 wolves have been killed around Wyoming this year because they were considered predators.
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Wolf saga continues
 
by Gib Mathers December 31, 2012 Powell Tribune
 
Wyoming got its shot at wolf hunting this fall. Meanwhile, three lawsuits now are aiming to end hunting in Wyoming and return the canines to the Endangered Species List, at least in Wyoming.
 
Essentially, the lawsuits argue that Wyoming’s predator zone, covering roughly 85 percent of the state, will not allow wolves to connect genetically with other wolves and thus expand the population outside of Yellowstone National Park.
 
Over the last couple of years, Gov. Matt Mead worked with U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to get wolves delisted in Wyoming. As agreed upon by Mead and the federal government, Wyoming is managing for a minimum of at least 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves outside Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation.
 
Wolf hunting began Oct. 1, 2012 in Wyoming. Wolf hunting in Wyoming’s trophy management area ends today (Monday).
 
As of Dec. 27, 42 wolves had been killed out of the 52 wolf quota in the trophy area.
 
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/bkercsj
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Park County sees most wolf harvest
 
Monday, December 31, 2012 By MARK HEINZ - Cody Enterprise
 
With Wyoming’s first licensed wolf hunting season drawing to a close, the latest available reports indicate more than half the wolves harvested were taken in or near Park County.
 
As of the latest Game and Fish harvest reports Dec. 28, 41 wolves had been shot in Wyoming’s 12 trophy game hunt areas. That was short of the state’s total quota of 52 wolves.
 
But hunters had taken 22 of the 23 wolves allowed in the four trophy game hunting areas in or near the county – hunt areas 1-4, according to G&F.
 
The season closed Dec. 31.
 
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Minnesota's Wolf Hunting Update
 
by slangseth on Monday, December 31st, 2012 KWOA
 
Minnesota’s late season wolf hunting and trapping season has proven to be successful for hunters and trappers with 205 wolves harvested out of target quota of 253. The only zone that remains open until January 31 is the northwestern zone--138 wolves have been harvested out of a target quota of 187 in that region.
 
In the early season hunt, 147 wolves were harvested out of a target quota of 200, which brings the total number of harvested wolves to 352.
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OR-7's first year was quiet - but that won't last
 
December 30, 2012 Record Searchlight
 
OR-7 is the wolf that didn't howl.
 
But that won't last.
 
When the first known gray wolf in nearly a century wandered into California a year ago Friday, the arrival was greeted with awe by wildlife lovers and fierce blowback from the far north state's ranch country.
 
In the year since, though, even as the wolf has restlessly roamed through the Cascades and northern Sierra Nevada, it's been easy to wonder what the fuss was all about.
 
The wolf's plainly eaten enough prey to stay alive, but it hasn't devastated the large game that both hunters and wolves prize. Nor, says the state Department of Fish and Game, is there evidence that it has attacked cattle, despite the natural worries of livestock owners. And the big, bad wolf certainly hasn't snatched children away in the night as they warmed their hands by campfires.
 
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La Migra - for wolves
 
Lawsuit to challenge USFWS on ‘recovery permit’ for wolves released in Mexico
 
December 31, 2012 by Bob Berwyn Summit County Voice
 
FRISCO — While the U.S. and Mexico are supposed to be cooperating on a recovery program for endangered Mexican gray wolves, things could get sticky in the desert Southwest, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims authority to capture any wolves that are released in Mexico and cross the border.
 
Captured wolves would be placed into the captive-breeding program, returned to where they came from, or relocated into the Mexican wolf recovery area, but wildlife conservation advocates say the federal government failed to follow its own regulations in giving itself a “recovery permit.”
 
“It’s fantastic that Mexico’s working to restore wolves to its northern wilds,” said Michael Robinson, wolf recovery specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “And of course, these wolves in northern Mexico don’t recognize political boundaries. If they’re able to set up a home range that crosses the border, it would be tragic and wrong for Fish and Wildlife officials to then capture them and snatch them out of that home.”
 
To prevent that, the Center for Biological Diversity last week said it will file a lawsuit aimed at preventing the federal agency from exercising that recovery option.
 
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