Idaho Fish and Game turns to hired hunter

[JLS]

could be..only the hunter may truly know and we will never no how many are killed

If he killed and did not document/report accurately, that would be the stupidest thing he could ever do. 

Don't we all ask for honesty and transparency from government officials? 

[Northway]

could be..only the hunter may truly know and we will never no how many are killed

If he killed and did not document/report accurately, that would be the stupidest thing he could ever do. 

Don't we all ask for honesty and transparency from government officials?

Documentation and accurate reporting are not strong suits with a number of agencies that handle wildlife/undeveloped lands. Agencies like Wildlife Services and the BLM can't seem to do either to save their souls. I'm not sure how good IDFG is when it comes to reporting?

[denali]

They must be taking some heat to respond ??  -  from IDFG web site


why we manage wildlife in wilderness

By Virgil Moore, Director, Idaho Fish and Game

Recent media coverage about Idaho Fish and Game sending an employee to try to remove two of the wolf packs in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness has raised questions and concerns. Many Idahoans have strong feelings about wolves - and wilderness. I've heard from those who believe we should take a hands-off approach and "let nature take its course" in wilderness, while others feel Fish and Game's actions are not aggressive enough to recover elk herds in the area.

Since their introduction into Idaho, we have come to understand that wolves are very prolific at reproducing and colonizing new territory and they can withstand relatively high mortality levels.

In 2002, the Idaho State legislature adopted a state wolf management plan to ensure that Idaho's wolf population would remain on the Idaho landscape and off the federal endangered species list.

Part of keeping wolves in Idaho is managing them to reduce conflicts. Idaho law says that wildlife throughout our state belongs to the citizens and that Fish and Game will manage to preserve, protect, perpetuate such wildlife, and provide for the citizens continued supplies for hunting, fishing and trapping.

Wildlife management often involves action: reducing crop damage from deer and elk herds through special hunts, reducing traffic collisions with big game animals, removing mountain lions from cities, preventing nuisance bear behavior by improving public awareness about sanitation, addressing overpopulation by increasing harvest, and recovering populations in decline by improving habitat, and in this case, reducing predation.

Fish and Game seeks to manage large predators (black bears, mountain lions, and gray wolves) in balance with their prey. The pack behavior of wolves is different than more solitary predators. The rapid growth of the wolf population disrupted the predator-prey balance in some areas and is a major factor in preventing some elk populations from rebounding.

The wilderness is a special place but it is different from a national park. Backcountry hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing are treasured opportunities, and Fish and Game has actively managed wildlife in central Idaho since before the area was designated wilderness.

Aerial surveys tell us that in the Frank Church wilderness, elk populations have dropped 43 percent since 2002 and wolf populations are too high in relation to elk numbers. Our research in other backcountry areas indicates that wolf predation is a major factor preventing elk populations from recovering. We know there are at least six documented packs in the Middle Fork Salmon zone, and several more packs throughout the wilderness area. Recent back country wildfires have increased elk forage but may it take a few years for habitat to fully recover.

Wolf hunting and trapping by sportsmen in the Middle Fork zones have not been sufficiently effective in reducing elk predation. Even if successful, this action will in no way come near to eliminating wolves. That is not, and never will be our goal.

More information about the Middle Fork zone elk population trends is included on page 97 of Fish and Game's new 10 year Draft Elk Management Plan posted on the Fish and Game website. Read more here: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/wildlife/?getpage=324.

[jon.brown509]

They should have let the biologist go in and get them like Montana does lol I know a biologist from Montana who has put more wolves in the dirt than any human has since wolfers in the 1900s lol this is cool though my future job in preadtor control looks better every day with stuff like this 

[bearpaw]

They must be taking some heat to respond ??  -  from IDFG web site


why we manage wildlife in wilderness

By Virgil Moore, Director, Idaho Fish and Game

Recent media coverage about Idaho Fish and Game sending an employee to try to remove two of the wolf packs in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness has raised questions and concerns. Many Idahoans have strong feelings about wolves - and wilderness. I've heard from those who believe we should take a hands-off approach and "let nature take its course" in wilderness, while others feel Fish and Game's actions are not aggressive enough to recover elk herds in the area.

Since their introduction into Idaho, we have come to understand that wolves are very prolific at reproducing and colonizing new territory and they can withstand relatively high mortality levels.

In 2002, the Idaho State legislature adopted a state wolf management plan to ensure that Idaho's wolf population would remain on the Idaho landscape and off the federal endangered species list.

Part of keeping wolves in Idaho is managing them to reduce conflicts. Idaho law says that wildlife throughout our state belongs to the citizens and that Fish and Game will manage to preserve, protect, perpetuate such wildlife, and provide for the citizens continued supplies for hunting, fishing and trapping.

Wildlife management often involves action: reducing crop damage from deer and elk herds through special hunts, reducing traffic collisions with big game animals, removing mountain lions from cities, preventing nuisance bear behavior by improving public awareness about sanitation, addressing overpopulation by increasing harvest, and recovering populations in decline by improving habitat, and in this case, reducing predation.

Fish and Game seeks to manage large predators (black bears, mountain lions, and gray wolves) in balance with their prey. The pack behavior of wolves is different than more solitary predators. The rapid growth of the wolf population disrupted the predator-prey balance in some areas and is a major factor in preventing some elk populations from rebounding.

The wilderness is a special place but it is different from a national park. Backcountry hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing are treasured opportunities, and Fish and Game has actively managed wildlife in central Idaho since before the area was designated wilderness.

Aerial surveys tell us that in the Frank Church wilderness, elk populations have dropped 43 percent since 2002 and wolf populations are too high in relation to elk numbers. Our research in other backcountry areas indicates that wolf predation is a major factor preventing elk populations from recovering. We know there are at least six documented packs in the Middle Fork Salmon zone, and several more packs throughout the wilderness area. Recent back country wildfires have increased elk forage but may it take a few years for habitat to fully recover.

Wolf hunting and trapping by sportsmen in the Middle Fork zones have not been sufficiently effective in reducing elk predation. Even if successful, this action will in no way come near to eliminating wolves. That is not, and never will be our goal.

More information about the Middle Fork zone elk population trends is included on page 97 of Fish and Game's new 10 year Draft Elk Management Plan posted on the Fish and Game website. Read more here: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/wildlife/?getpage=324.

That is a good statement, I wished WDFW would read and consider what Director Moore said. 

[snowpack]

some only have to be told fire is hot, others have to stick their hand in and get burned to believe it.

[jon.brown509]

Sad day to see them back down to pressure
http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/435877/85b41d5ddd/1454001502/4271a9384b/
there pulling him out.

[Elkaholic daWg]

And we pay their legal costs. This country need to sink  boatLOADS of lawyers.

[JLS]

Idaho official says hunter eliminated two wolf packs
 
CommentsPrint


Published: January 29. 2014 3:35PM










The state has pulled out a hunter who killed two wolf packs in an Idaho wilderness area.


KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) — A professional hunter has been called out of a federal wilderness in central Idaho because he succeeded in killing all the wolves in two packs, a state agency spokesman said.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Mike Keckler tells the Idaho Mountain Express (http://bit.ly/1aHwsQA ) in a story on Wednesday that the hunter killed eight wolves with traps and a ninth by hunting.

Gus Thoreson of Salmon started hunting and trapping in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in mid-December as part of a state plan to eliminate wolves to boost elk numbers. The state agency had planned to keep Thoreson hunting through the winter.

“He had been pretty effective early on, but it had been two weeks since he had taken any wolves, so we decided there was no reason to keep him in the area any longer,” Keckler said.

Keckler said the average size of a wolf pack in Idaho is five wolves, so the agency determined it had reached its goal of eliminating the Golden Creek and Monumental Creek packs. Officials announced Monday that Thoreson was coming out.

Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore’s acknowledgment that Thoreson’s hunt relied on the use of the U.S. Forest Service’s backcountry airstrips and cabin had prompted strong emotions, including from wolf advocates who sued in federal court to force him to quit.

Defenders of Wildlife, Western Watersheds Project and Wilderness Watch filed the lawsuit Jan. 6 asking the judge to stop the plan immediately to give the case time to work through the courts. The environmental groups were joined by Ralph Maughan, a former Idaho State University professor, conservationist and long-time wolf recovery advocate from Pocatello.

They lost their initial bid on Jan. 17 when a federal judge rejected their request for a temporary restraining order. The conservation groups argued that Thoreson’s activities violated the 1964 Wilderness Act and other federal acts.

The groups had appealed that decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tim Preso, an attorney for Earthjustice representing the groups, said Wednesday that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game faced a Tuesday deadline to file a legal brief concerning the appeal, but pulling the hunter made that unnecessary.

“Instead they were able to sidestep all that,” he said, adding the groups are considering their next move.

“I am happy that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has relented, but it is unfortunate that so many wolves have been taken in this senseless plan to manhandle wildlife in an area that Congress recognized as a wilderness,” said Ken Cole, National Environmental Policy Act coordinator at the Boise office of Western Watersheds Project.

Wolves were reintroduced to Idaho in the mid-1990s and have since flourished in backcountry regions, including the Frank Church wilderness.

Last year, state game managers estimated Idaho’s wolf population at 683, an 11 percent drop from 2012. The highest total was in 2009, when it estimated 859 wolves were in the state.


 
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[ironhead14]

It is pretty sad that our Game Dept. is not intelligent to see what has happened in other states.  I guess we just don't hire the brightest people to manage our wildlife!

[elkboy]

This may surprise some folks on here, but I personally have no trouble with a management action like this, that targets a specific place (Middle Fork Salmon) and time (post-fire).  It takes 5-20 years for post-fire forage to really reach top production in our region (inland NW), and this may give the elk herds a chance to pull their numbers up a bit, with forage on the increase and predation temporarily reduced.  The fact that it is federal wilderness is a bit immaterial, to me at least- the state is still the manager of non-listed wildlife!   

[Come Get Some]

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/01/07/64287.htm

And the lawsuits begin... shocked..shocked I tell ya 

He is not going to "eradicate" wolves, the plan is to reduce the number of packs to increase calf recruitment, not to "inflate" elk numbers for the benefit of commercial outfitters.  these people are relentless and never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I know, there is not a single person on the planet capable of "eradicating" multiple packs of wolves.  Not up in that country anyway.

Mindless propoganda

  I know Gus, He is a rank go get em cowboy with no quit. I own one of his mules. Jigger. If anyone can do it it will be Gus, He and his girlfriend spent 3 months from December to February a couple of years ago in that same country trapping cats. He lives for this kind of outdoor activity.

[sagewalker]

GOOD DEAL!!

[deerslyr]

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/01/07/64287.htm

And the lawsuits begin... shocked..shocked I tell ya 

He is not going to "eradicate" wolves, the plan is to reduce the number of packs to increase calf recruitment, not to "inflate" elk numbers for the benefit of commercial outfitters.  these people are relentless and never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I know, there is not a single person on the planet capable of "eradicating" multiple packs of wolves.  Not up in that country anyway.

Mindless propoganda

  I know Gus, He is a rank go get em cowboy with no quit. I own one of his mules. Jigger. If anyone can do it it will be Gus, He and his girlfriend spent 3 months from December to February a couple of years ago in that same country trapping cats. He lives for this kind of outdoor activity.

Gus sounds like a bad ass dude, took 7 wolves out since January, that nuts! I wonder if they let him keep the pelts? That would of given him quite a nice bonus.

[Come Get Some]

I spoke to his mom yesterday, he is out now. I will let you all know if I hear any good info on this.