I hate wolves. JUST hate them

[bobcat]

The largest single problem facing habitat improvement are the limitations that were put on logging public lands in the early 90s, in conjunction with super-effective fire fighting techniques which have been improved greatly since they started 80 years or so ago. This is a disastrous combination which again, has been created by enviro-wackos who have no skin in the game.

Actually I wouldn't blame the "enviro-wackos" for the lack of fire. This is an issue that can be blamed on the general public, who have been influenced by the Smokey the Bear campaign, and still believe that forest fires are evil.

[turkeyfeather]

Could you imagine the hunting opportunities we would have if all the time and money spent fighting fires in the middle of nowhere were instead spent on wildlife and habitat

[headshot5]

Yep instead of flying over dumping water, just fly over and dump grass seed, only wait til the fire burns itself out first (after a good rain would be good). 

[pianoman9701]

Could you imagine the hunting opportunities we would have if all the time and money spent fighting fires in the middle of nowhere were instead spent on wildlife and habitat

If we'd stop fighting those fires, we wouldn't need to dump that money into habitat.

[turkeyfeather]

Could you imagine the hunting opportunities we would have if all the time and money spent fighting fires in the middle of nowhere were instead spent on wildlife and habitat

If we'd stop fighting those fires, we wouldn't need to dump that money into habitat.

Not in those areas but we could use it to improve areas that we can't just allow to burn. Like maybe open areas around farms for upland hunting.

[billdo5]

Blah Blah Blah Johnny Bravo

[turkeyfeather]

Blah Blah Blah Johnny Bravo

What? 

[billdo5]

 

[turkeyfeather]

If you say so. Makes no sense. I guess its your own personal inside joke. Wait I remember you. Your the little boy that likes to jump into threads and  for no apparent reason.

[dreamingbig]

I glad most hunters disagree with you. You must be a liberal?

.

I'm no liberal.  I just don't see the logic in hating an animal for being an animal.

When you can't hunt elk and deer anymore, don't complain!

[JLS]

I glad most hunters disagree with you. You must be a liberal?

.

I'm no liberal.  I just don't see the logic in hating an animal for being an animal.

When you can't hunt elk and deer anymore, don't complain!

So if I offered to give you my Montana deer/elk combo and told you the only caveat was you had to hunt in the western half of the state where there are wolves, would you turn it down?

Hirshey wrote up a great story on a great deer hunt that is smack in the middle of wolf central in Idaho.  I guess their group didn't get the memo there were no animals left?

[pianoman9701]

According to the media and wildlife managers, everything is just fine, as long as we subsidize the ranchers to pen their cattle and feed them hay until the wolves go away and eat all of the wild ungulates. God! 

http://www.nwcn.com/news?fId=207313021&fPath=%2Fnews%2Flocal&fDomain=10212

[turkeyfeather]

I'll have to go back and try to re-read her story but I don't recall her ever saying exactly where she was hunting nor mentioning anything about wolves at any point.

[20 Minutes]

According to the media and wildlife managers, everything is just fine, as long as we subsidize the ranchers to pen their cattle and feed them hay until the wolves go away and eat all of the wild ungulates. God! 

http://www.nwcn.com/news?fId=207313021&fPath=%2Fnews%2Flocal&fDomain=10212

I saw that news story air last night on King 5 News. They basically said the game department is HOPING the wolves follow the deer and elk into the wilderness areas away from the local ranches, homes, etc. The wolves are not going to do that, until they have too! Our game department is so messed up!

[Elkaholic daWg]

 And we can look forward to things like THIS...................... Sure wish I had time to get you the pics, or a link to them. Wolfbait, If you recognize this could you post a link. Was in my down loads and don't remember where it came from.... but I'm thinking wolf news network



Ungulate Herds at the Hand of Wolves
The pictures you will see in this notebook have been taken in the Lolo Zone in Idaho, Units 10 and 12, except for the first section of pictures of the 6 x 8 bull elk, which were taken 30 miles outside Libby, Montana in the Winter of 2008. None of the pictures are easy to look at; they are actually quite gruesome, quite horrible, but tell a tale of what
Source: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/hunt/maps/unitzone.cfm
A Sad Tale Needing to be Told
2 | P a g e
deer and elk have endured at the hand of wolves in Idaho and Montana.
The people who took the pictures you are about to see of the slaughter in the Lolo Zone of Idaho, showed them to Idaho Fish and Game officials who refused to listen, refused to acknowledge what was obviously rapidly becoming a crisis situation with regard to the health of the Lolo Zone elk herds.
Had Idaho Fish and Game officials been traveling the Lolo Zone as these sportsman were; had they been checking on the health of the herds, as they should have been; they could not have helped but see what these sportsmen saw, they could not have helped but be as alarmed as the sportsmen were and are.
Following are the approximate number of elk in Lolo Zone, Units 10 and 12 —1994 versus 2010. These numbers tell a tale of an already declining herd on which wolves were set and allowed to prey, uncontrolled.
Zone
1994
2010
% Decline
10
9729
1473
84.9%
12
3832
705
81.6%
As you look at the following pictures, it is obvious that these elk were not hard to find, that there were many more, just like them, scattered throughout the Lolo Zone, Units 10 and 12; that these are but a representative sampling of the damage that has been done by wolves to the elk herds in this zone.
It is inconceivable, looking at these pictures, that anyone could believe that wolves only prey on the sick, the old, the injured. It is inconceivable that a political agenda could so blind people to the reality of what wolves, in uncontrolled numbers, do to ungulate herds, that they could stand by and watch this happen with no compunction to stop it.
Following are the words of Steve Nadeau, Idaho Fish and Game large predator manager. On May 22, 2008, Nadeau was given the employee of the year award for outstanding management/leadership and coordination by IDFG director Cal Groen.
"There are so many factors affecting elk populations, and wolves are only one of them, and likely not the most important one…"1
"The majority of what hunters are seeing are behavioral changes rather than
1 "Hunters get organized in an effort to control wolves; Associated Press; June 21, 2004.
A Sad Tale Needing to be Told
3 | P a g e
population changes…"2
"Despite the presence of wolves, some of the ailing elk herds in the Clearwater basin
are beginning to show modest signs of improvement…"3
"It's likely elk populations will break through that bottleneck and start to expand
again."4
"We really don't fear wolves or other predators are going to drive any populations
of big game animals to extinction…"5
"They will cause some level of predation within those populations that may or may
not affect the status of that population."6
"The department and tribe are monitoring elk and wolf populations. If it's
determined wolves are having too severe an impact on elk, he [Nadeau] says, new
rules proposed by the Fish and Wildlife Service would allow some wolves to be
removed."7
Now that the Lolo Zone elk herds are at dangerously low levels, Idaho Fish and Wildlife
officials are trying to claim they've been concerned all along. The following is from an
article published in the Idaho Mountain Express on February 27, 20098:
"Since the reintroduction of wolves to Idaho in 1995, Fish and Game has expressed
concerns about declining elk numbers in the agency's Lolo elk zone—which covers
big game units 10 and 12—in the north-central part of the state. Fish and Game
blames wolves for the herds' inability to rebound."
To date, there has been no lethal control measures taken in the Lolo Zone. The
following appeared on KTVI, Boise, March 20109:
"LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) -- The director of Idaho Fish and Game says more wolves
need to be killed in the Lolo area of the Clearwater River basin to stop the decline in
elk populations.
2 Ibid.
3 "Wolves thrive in Minnesota"; Eric Barker, April 26, 2004.
4 Ibid.
5 "Anti-Wolf at the door"; Eric Barker, April 25, 2004.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005125045
9 http://www.kivitv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12096829
A Sad Tale Needing to be Told
4 | P a g e
"Cal Groen says state wildlife managers will recommend significant changes to wolf seasons in the Lolo and other zones where elk numbers are not at management levels.
"He says management tools could include increased harvest limits, multiple tags, trapping, and asking outfitters to help reduce wolf numbers.
"Groen says eight of the state's 29 elk hunting zones are below the department's population objectives.
"He says five of those have significant wolf populations, including the Lolo, Selway and Sawtooth zones.
"The hunting changes could be put in place next fall."
In the 2009/2010 wolf season, ending on March 31, 2010, the quota for the Lolo Zone was 27 wolves10; of which only 13 have been taken as of March 24, 2010. This number is insufficient to stop the decimation of the Lolo Zone ungulate herds.
What has happened to the ungulate herds in the Lolo Zone, Units 10 and 12, should never have been allowed to happen but has happened because of a political agenda that favors wolves at the expense of ungulate herds, sportsman, hunters, farmers and ranchers.