WDFW land purchase for WOLVES!!!

[BULLBLASTER]

OH YA and the wdfw says that hunting season for deer cant be all year long because the wolves have to have time to eat too!! and i only get 1 elk tag a year because the wolves need teh elk too!!



kind of stupid to bitch about more land open to hunt IMO!!!!

[hoytem]

is our ecosystem that out of whack, that we need wolves? I don't get the fact that the wdfw goes to the general public with these issues. "survey conducted in early 2008 shows high overall support for wolf recovery in Washington among the general public, with 75% either strongly or moderately in favor versus 17% in strong or moderate opposition." It is the outdoorsman, hunter and fisher who fund them. We should have more say on how they spend their time and money.

[Colville]

Let's not confuse the debate about wolves and whether WA should be attempting to re-establish them with this land purchase. You can't do any damage to WA's wolf plans by opposing this land purchase.

Opposing this purchase wouldn't slow or change the WA wolf plan one iota. They are separate. Wolf recovery may have been the reason used to make the acquisition, even the idea that wolf prey needs to be protected in order to feed them. However you can't restore wolves on 432 acres. That's like trying to restore Bull trout by securing 100 feet of a stream.

This purchase will in fact save winter habitat for mule deer. That's a good thing. The fact that in the future they may be wintering better to feed wolves can't be solved by opposing securing this land. It wold only speed along the rate at which deer populations become un-huntable.  If we are worried about wolves hurting our hunting opportunities, we have to secure wintering habitat at every single opportunity.

If anything we should be pressing to "use" the needs of wolves to further the needs of mule deer and therefore of hunters. We should fight and oppose active wolf reintro plans everywhere we can but we're cutting our nose to spite our face if we complain about these purchases.

[MichaelJ]

Couldn't of said it better Colville... I agree 100%

Michael

[Slider]

I would simply like the TRUTH!!! Nothing more and nothing less!!!

[MichaelJ]

I got a strange notion there's denning sites or something else on those four hundred acres... wouldn't you guys think so?

Michael

[Cougeyes]

you can't restore wolves on 432 acres. That's like trying to restore Bull trout by securing 100 feet of a stream.

You beat me to it, that's exactly what I was thinking.  More land purchases mean more hunting opportunities and less rural development. 

[boneaddict]

No Michael, I doubt it.  I think Doublelung sums up the real motive here, but what it will turn into is a buffet table.

The WDFW district wildlife biologist got $2.5M of USFWS Section 6 money, earmarked by USFWS for wolf recovery, to acquire and perpetually protect 423 acres of mule deer winter range, and block up an inholding on the Methow WA.  Best possible use of that $$ IMHO, it would have gone for something else stupid regarding wolf recovery if not spent on mule deer winter range.  It aint pretty, but it is how you play the game.  He has no ability to allocate how the USFWS spends Section 6 dollars, once allocated for “wolf recovery” – may as well do something useful for mule deer (a.k.a. “prey”). 

I’d have done the same thing to protect winter range from becoming ranchettes!  I call it a creative approach to protecting and enhancing mule deer winter range, it is just too bad that the only value USFWS sees in deer and elk is as ESA prey.  That said, DON'T crap all over the guy for creatively using ESA recovery money from the federal government to perpetually protect big game winter range!!!!!

I, for one, applaud his dedication and creativity to do something positive for mule deer.  I say a big thank you is in order, not a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.  I hope to see thousands more acres of crucial habitat protected for "wolf prey" in Chelan and Okanogan counties with federal $$.
 

[MichaelJ]

No Michael, I doubt it.  I think Doublelung sums up the real motive here, but what it will turn into is a buffet table.

The WDFW district wildlife biologist got $2.5M of USFWS Section 6 money, earmarked by USFWS for wolf recovery, to acquire and perpetually protect 423 acres of mule deer winter range, and block up an inholding on the Methow WA.  Best possible use of that $$ IMHO, it would have gone for something else stupid regarding wolf recovery if not spent on mule deer winter range.  It aint pretty, but it is how you play the game.  He has no ability to allocate how the USFWS spends Section 6 dollars, once allocated for “wolf recovery” – may as well do something useful for mule deer (a.k.a. “prey”). 

I’d have done the same thing to protect winter range from becoming ranchettes!  I call it a creative approach to protecting and enhancing mule deer winter range, it is just too bad that the only value USFWS sees in deer and elk is as ESA prey.  That said, DON'T crap all over the guy for creatively using ESA recovery money from the federal government to perpetually protect big game winter range!!!!!

I, for one, applaud his dedication and creativity to do something positive for mule deer.  I say a big thank you is in order, not a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.  I hope to see thousands more acres of crucial habitat protected for "wolf prey" in Chelan and Okanogan counties with federal $$.
 

Gotcha bone, on a different note; Isn't that buffet table inevitable?  Even if the WDFW didn't purchase the land?

Michael

[WDFW-SUX]

The fact that WDFW is giddy at the opportunity for wolf tourism means we are screwed.

[boneaddict]

Actually it already has been a buffet table.  Mostly if they hadn't bought it, core range would have houses ALL OVER IT.  Then I guess they'd buffet on them elsewhere.  For the most part I think it was a key purchase using a shrewd way of getting it.  Good for him.

[Schmalzfam]

You know I find it very strange that this area is where the wolves are..in the sense that we hunted there last year. During our hunt last year we didn't see anything..well, 2 WT does and one muley doe. Yet, there was carcuses everywhere on the golden doe unit. We were saying to eachother..what happened? LAst year we saw 15 mule deer and some nice white tail..this year crap!! Can they actually cause that much damage in one season? Or was teh winter that bad?

[boneaddict]

They can cause A LOT of damage.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Large carnivores will definitely displace deer and elk from a local area - one reason they move around.  They kill some, the rest move on, they move on ... one of the best ways to locate a good spot to hunt a cougar - if you don't have a wolf pack!  - is to keep tabs on where deer and elk hunters report a consistently good area suddenly has no game, and there's nothing else (new road, disturbance, etc) to explain it. 

[Elkaholic daWg]

You know I find it very strange that this area is where the wolves are..in the sense that we hunted there last year. During our hunt last year we didn't see anything..well, 2 WT does and one muley doe. Yet, there was carcuses everywhere on the golden doe unit. We were saying to eachother..what happened? LAst year we saw 15 mule deer and some nice white tail..this year crap!! Can they actually cause that much damage in one season? Or was teh winter that bad?

 Guess what killed this Kitty near Sun Valley