north idaho afternoon

[walt]

I spent yesterday in north Idaho with a buddy in a last ditch effort to fill his elk tag.  In all we saw a grand total of 5 cow elk, 1 cow moose, one deer and 2 coyotes.  We did however see a ton of wolf sign.     The track next to my hat is just under 6 inches long.  At least the day ended with a cool sunset.

[boneaddict]

Looks pretty damn legit to me.  DAMN!

[NWTFhunter]

Beautiful sunset !!

That is one big ass dog indeed !
Where were you hunting at ? 
Did you catch my post about what a friend told me on the release of wolves in N Id. ?

[walt]

NWTFhunter I don't think I did see that post.  I will go looking.  We were in the St. Joe Drainage.  I've been wandering around in those mountains for 10 years and have seen deer and elk populations disappearing and wolf populations exploding over the last few years.

[NWTFhunter]

Trying to think where St Joe is.... is that around the Lewiston area ?

[walt]

St. Joe drains in Cd'A lake at the south end. 

[Charlie]

All in all sounds like a great day!! I will second Bone's "Damn" on the wolf print! Thanks for sharing the pictures. 

[whacker1]

I was the hunting partner with WALT Saturday - Here is the information that I posted on another forum to see if I could get more information on wolf population.

I have had a pretty rough hunting season this year. lots of hiking, driving, trying lots of different tactics. I even went so far as to talk to some friends that hunt in the same area, then talked to fish and game officials, and then to random hunters in the same area. I came up with one consistent message. Wolf sign is at an all time high and the sigthings are way up. I have not done a lot of research after this hunting season on the wolf population, but I was still suprised at how large the population actually is.

So, needless to say I won't be going back to this geographical region, but I wanted to let you all know about the experience.

I have a couple of concerns that I was hoping someone could shed some light on for me, because everything I have heard so far is hearsay.

First, I am told that when the wolves were re-introduced to the lower 48 - they were re-introduced as the "Grey" wolf from Canada, but the native species that originally inhabited this area of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho was the "Timber" wolf. My understanding from this hearsay and conjecture is that the Grey wolf is about 20-30 lbs heavier as a species. Grey ranging from 75 -130 lbs. Timber ranging from 60 - 90 lbs. The bottom line is that the Timber wolf preyed on Elk calves, Deer, and the weaker animals. The Grey wolf preys on Elk, Moose, Deer, Bear, and Cats regardless of size. Anyone shed any light on this?

Second, there was an article in the local paper last week stating that 700-800 of the reintroduced population of wolves totalling 1500 across three states are located in the area of Idaho I have spent 18 days hunting this year. I wish they would have run the article in the summer instead of December.

Third, WALT took the pictures from my Saturday excursion. Feel free to give me your thoughts:

For the questions of where we were at.  The St. Joe Drainage is Units 6, 7, & 9 in North Idaho.  The St. Joe River runs from the Montana border west to St Maries, ID. 

I will be looking for NWTFhunter post on wolves as mentioned.
Neil

[whacker1]

In case anyone wanted to see the article from the newspaper, I copied the text below:  I find it very interesting reading: 

Wolf domestic animal kills up in Idaho
Most problems in middle of state; 136 wolves killed
Associated Press
December 5, 2008

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Wolves in Idaho have killed 325 cattle, sheep and dogs so far in 2008, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game says.

The reported kills through Nov. 24 – 212 sheep, 100 cattle and 13 dogs – are 47 more than in all of 2007.

Steve Nadeau, the department's large carnivore coordinator, said wolves in the last two years have tended to move onto private land.

"You can't just keep stuffing wolves on top of each other," he told The Times-News.

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He said the biggest problem area stretches across the middle of the state, in a rough triangle that stretches from Weiser to Fairfield to Salmon.

Wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in the mid-1990s. There are an estimated 1,500 wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, with 700 to 800 of them in Idaho. Nadeau said his agency is doing aerial surveys in Idaho to see if those numbers have changed.

Idaho officials had planned a hunting season on wolves this fall until U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Montana restored the predator's endangered status last summer.

Since then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it planned to end federal protections for gray wolves in Montana and Idaho.

"It's crazy that they're not delisted in Idaho," said Stan Boyd, executive director of the Idaho Wool Growers Association. "To me, it goes to show you that the Endangered Species Act doesn't really work."

Through Nov. 21, Fish and Game had documented the killing of 136 wolves in the state. Federal authorities killed 86 that had been preying on livestock, and 13 were killed by people protecting livestock or dogs. Nine wolves were killed illegally.

Most of the remainder died for unknown reasons, the agency said.

Jenny Harbine, an attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice, said it does not plan to oppose the killing of wolves that prey on livestock.

"We haven't sued over the rule that allows that, and don't intend to," Harbine said. "Our goal is to find a way to live with wolves."

Had a wolf hunting season taken place in Idaho this year, Fish and Game officials estimated it would have reduced the wolf population in the state by 200 to 250 animals.

Wayne Wright, chairman of the Fish and Game Commission, said the state is preparing to manage wolves again if they are delisted and management of the species is returned to the state.

"We'd like to make sure we have all the tools ready to implement," Wright said.

[SCRUBS]

Great pic`s, thanks for sharing them.


JMHO