Aren't the wolves under federal protection right now? I don't think fish and wildlife could impose a season IF they wanted to. As much as it hurts to say, the indians might be able to help keep the wolves in check when we can't do anything?
That's somewhat true, one of the long term purposes of this WDFW appointed group will be to determine if/when the State is ready to petition for de-listing, your right the Feds have to OK that, but the information to do so would come from WDFW's bio's, etc.. There are goals for getting that done. The indians are bound by the same Federal protections, they do apply to the tribe's as an inter-government agreement, but again, the indians are already jockying for their piece of the pie, where given the talks I'm thinking will undoubtably be the largest, if and when hunting for wolves is allowed in Wa.. I only care in principle. if they want to hunt them as a top priority, they should allow wolves to become established on at least a portion of their Reservation, right now the populations I'm aware of are totally off reservation, but it there is a lot of habitat on the res that is not used for cattle ranching, etc.. The tribe has offered a spot for antelope to reside on the res., so why not wolves? That comes accross to me like; 'We want to hunt wolves, but realize what damage they can do, so we don't want them mucking up our hunting for other game species on the Reservation, we'd rather they be a problem for others.'
