The Reasons for the Canadian wolf introduction

[Special T]

you don't sound like a village idiot to me... 

[firecrotch]

If all the posts are correct I've read then they are already comsuming private lands by driving out the ranchers/farmers.  For instance a recent post by Wolfbait said 6 cattlement in the Gila in New Mexico are selling out because they can't afford to feedthe wolves.  Eco groups have bought some of their land and I suppose anybody with money can buy it.  Another recent post by Wolfbait told about a group that bought a big chunk and gave it back to the Forest Service.  So there you go.  Invent a species that will bankrupt a landowner you want his land and he goes belly up and sells to the highest bidder, you buy it then give it to the Feds. and your corridor plan is complete.  Right now I know of a large landowner near I-90 that has several spotted owl circles on his land.  He can't log it which he bought or else inherited from his grandpa for logging for his decendants livlihood forever.  Well, now he can't make a nickel on it so will have to sell out.   What about all the wolves that will kill off the ranchers livestock and he can't protect himself.  They will have to sell.  Then theres the Palouse giant worm thats coming to the forefront that will put wheat farmers out of business.  Also the sharptail grouse in the lowlands and the pigmy rabbit and the list goes on and on.  Private land owners of any size are doomed if the ESA is not revamped.  This is all not just speculation.  This is happening right now and has been happening for several years already.  A lot of folks are jealous or for some reason think the large landowners are rich and get excited to see much ofthis private land taken away from them.  Not many people carrying signs for the large private land owners and they are just plain hard working people trying to make a living off cows, logging or raising crops.  When they can't survice selling their resources they have to get out of the business.  I promise you they can make a living but can't do it if we throw the ESA at them and destroy them even though they've kept those species around and even enhanced the habitat for some of the species for the last 200 years.  Now for some reason all the ranchers are considered vermin wildlife destroyers.   Sickening

Exactly! I know of a family in Idaho that literally gave up everything they had. They had a very large sheep operation and ranched off of a main highway. Someone had shot a wolf off the highway on their property without their knowledge, next thing they know the feds are at their door and they were accused because of the steriotypical outlook on ranchers and farmers. They gave up their farm and moved to another area because they literally could not fight the case and plead guilty to face the lower charges. Sad, sad deal the way this 'socialist" country is going.

[Idabooner]

you don't sound like a village idiot to me... 

     X2

[wolfbait]

Thursday, August 16, 2001 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

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Conservation boosted in the North Cascades
By Nicole Tsong

Seattle Times staff reporter

Conservationists yesterday handed nearly 2,000 acres in the North Cascades to the Wenatchee National Forest for permanent protection.

Private donations from more than 9,500 donors funded the purchase — a combination of two parcels of land — by the Cascades Conservation Partnership. It is one of the largest citizen-to-government gifts of land in the state's history, according to organizers.

"It's gotten to the point that every bit of national forest is very important," said Sonny O'Neal, supervisor of the Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests.

"It's important that we find ways to actually buy the land."

The 1,241-acre Negro Creek Valley parcel, adjacent to the southeast corner of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, was purchased from Longview Fibre for $1.5 million.

A separate square-mile parcel, or 640 acres, south of Interstate 90 just west of Manastash Ridge, was purchased from Plum Creek Timber for $1.28 million.

The newly protected land, which prevents roads from being built or forests logged, includes old-growth forests with gray wolves and spotted owls, and habitat for trout and salmon.

The purchase is part of a larger preservation campaign that began last year and has put more than 13,000 acres of land into conservation.

The campaign has raised $11.1 million in private funds, including $3.5 million from a Paul Allen foundation, and $26.3 million from the federal government.

Congress may appropriate more money for the partnership later this fall, said Fred Munson, the Cascades partnership director.

Munson said timing was critical for the Negro Creek Valley land, where there were plans to build a bridge and roads.

With the purchase, "we're keeping that whole valley wild," he said.

Nicole Tsong can be reached at 206-464-2793 or ntsong@seattletimes.com.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20010816&slug=cascade16m

[wolfbait]

Saturday, May 3, 1997 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

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Conservation Plan Targets 18 Million Acres
AP

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expects 18 million acres of wildlife habitat on private lands to be protected by the end of the year under habitat-conservation plans.

Here are the 20 largest plans so far, their locations and the species affected, according to the agency:

1. State of Washington, 1.6 million acres specified in management plan for state's 2.1 million acres of forestry lands; northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, salmon and steelhead.

2. Balcones Canyonlands, Travis County, Texas, 633,000 acres; golden-cheeked warbler, black-capped vireo, borianthos plant and cave bugs.

3. Riverside County, Calif., 540,000 acres; Stephens' kangaroo rat.

4. Clark County, Nev., and Southern California, 525,000 acres; desert tortoise.

5. Simpson Timber Co., Northern California, 300,000 acres; northern spotted owl.

6. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in North Carolina, working with U.S. Army Fort Bragg, six neighboring counties and private landowners, 300,000 acres; red-cockaded woodpecker.

7. Metropolitan Bakersfield, Calif., 262,000 acres; San Joaquin kit fox, blunk-nosed leopard lizard, Tipton kangaroo rat, Bakersfield cactus, and San Joaquin wooly-threads.

8. Potlach Corp., Arkansas, 233,000 acres; red-cockaded woodpecker.

9. Weyerhaeuser Co., Coos Bay, Ore., 210,000 acres; northern spotted owl.

10. Orange County, Calif., 200,000 acres; California gnatcatcher, southern arroyo toad, and American peregrine falcon.

11. State of Massachusetts, coastal counties, 200 coastal miles; piping plover.

12. Plum Creek Timber Co., Kittitas County, Wash., 170,000 acres; northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, grizzly bear, and gray wolf.

13. Oregon Department of Forestry, Elliott State Forest, 94,000 acres; American bald eagle, northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

14. Coachella Valley, Riverside County, Calif., 70,000 acres, Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard.

15. Gulf Coast Prairies Safe Harbor, Southern Texas, 64,000 acres; brown pelican and prairie chicken.

16. Alpomado Falcon Safe Harbor, Texas Gulf Coast, 64,000 acres; alpomado falcon.

17. Murray Pacific Corp., Lewis County, Wash., 55,000 acres; northern spotted owl.

18. Volusia County, Fla., 50,000 acres; nesting sea turtles.

19. Weyerhaeuser Co., Arkansas, Oklahoma, 40,000 acres; American burying beetle.

20. ARCO Western Energy, Kern County, Calif., 31,360 acres; San Joaquin kit fox, blunk-nosed leopard lizard, Tipton kangaroo rat and Glant kangaroo rat.

Copyright (c) 1997 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970503&slug=2537050

[haus]

refreakindiculous

There isn't a spot in the Endangered Species Act that says the protection of endangered species should superceed the financial livelihood of families by limiting or even preventing their ability to make a living off their own land, absolute *censored*. Who are we to tell any American that they cannot make a living off of their land because an 'endangered' bird has been found on their land? 

[Axle]

12. Plum Creek Timber Co., Kittitas County, Wash., 170,000 acres; northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, grizzly bear, and gray wolf.

Griz in Kittitas county? When do they plan this stupid move?

[wolfbait]

Wolves in Our Backyard 


http://www.freedomadvocates.org/articles/wildlands_project/wolves_in_our_backyard_20070530234/

[wolfbait]

Here is a letter I received recently. The information is very valuable, so copy it, and send it to all of your friends.

Letter to Share:

I thank governor Butch Otter for his help, along with that of County Commissioner Gordon Cruickshank in helping me regain access to my private property via a 130 year old RS2477 road, which Suzanne Rainville illegally ordered closed on April 20th, without any public comment or any due process. I thank anyone and everyone else who has had a part in saving my personal property rights from certain destruction by the always abusive USFS ranger Suzanne Rainville and her Forest Destruction Team.

For more than 38 days I lived in fear of fines or imprisonment simply for driving to my cabin on the river near Yellow Pine. However, I was issued a temporary access permit just yesterday. Today a Payette National forest ranger threatened my brother with fines and imprisonment for driving to my cabin, even though I already HAVE a temporary special use permit. There is still an ongoing battle with the Payette National Forest over the use of my driveway, and citizens from Yellow Pine have gotten locked behind closed gates 20 miles from nowhere, abused, threatened, harassed almost daily since Suzanne Rainville took power.

Further, many of our nation's historical treasures were intentionally destroyed by the Payette National Forest under the careful eye of Suzanne Rainville and two of her predecessors. They intentionally broke the law and destroyed nationally registered historical landmarks, simply to "cleanse the land" of any human trace.

Using nice words to describe the Payette National Forest Destruction Team, I would describe them as radical, overly zealous, fanatical and extreme.

There are dozens of witnesses waiting in the backcountry to testify as to the illegal removing of historical landmarks, many on private property. Dozens more can testify to the Payette National Forest illegally locking the entire town of Yellow Pine behind closed gates on the South Fork of the Salmon River, and holding them prisoner. One prominent community member almost died due to being denied medical treatment by locking of the gate by the Payette National Forest Destruction Team.

It's nice to see our state stand up for it's rights. Thank you governor Butch Otter, Commissioner Gordon Cruickshank, Valley County Commissioners, and everyone who has brought the criminal actions of the Payette National Forest Destruction Team to light.

Sincerely, Scott Amos

[wolfbait]

 Going (for the) Green

[wolfbait]

http://www.sovereignty.net/p/land/wildlandtom.htm

[wolfbait]

SAWS Action Alert: Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act introduced in the 111th Congress
 
SAWS Members,
 
Here we go again, this time during the 111th Congress (2009 - 2010), with this insane bill called the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA). This bill has once again been introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York.
 
“The plan would forbid most development across broad swaths of public land in the five states. It calls for the removal of more than 6,000 miles of existing roads, primarily within national forests. Old logging roads would be removed, and habitat restored in most of those areas, creating about 2,300 jobs and leading to a more sustainable economic base in the region, said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Montana-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies, an advocacy group.”
 
NREPA would create another 23 to 24 million more acres of wilderness in five western states (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming). Yes, I used the word “create”, as much of the public land included in NREPA - which would be designated as wilderness through this bill - is NOT remotely close to meeting the requirements of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Since when did “6000 miles of roads” qualify for wilderness? And if there are “6000 miles of roads” within the proposed wilderness areas, then I can virtually guarantee that there are numerous other man-made structures within these proposed wilderness areas too that do not qualify as wilderness.
 
Numerous statements regarding NREPA by various individuals attempt to jump on the ever so popular “stimulate the economy” bandwagon by claiming NREPA would create thousands of new jobs. I guess they must have forgotten about that thousands of lost jobs that will result from locking up millions of acres of public land from most multiple-use activities and the loss of jobs from businesses that profit and employees that earn a living from catering to those multiple-use activities.
 
Link to Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s Press Release:
http://maloney.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1787&Itemid=61
 
Rep. Maloney’s NREPA bill has been introduced every year since 1993, but it has thankfully in these past years never had enough support in Congress to pass and be signed by the president, which would then become law. Could this year be different? It is certainly possible with the newly elected individuals in Congress and the White House this year, who happen to be much more supportive of additional wilderness designations, so this bill could have the support it needs in this Congress to become law.
 
The fact that Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz, is a co-sponsor of NREPA this year is also certainly not good news for the public who enjoys mechanized recreation on public lands. Rep. Grijalva is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. This subcommittee falls under control of the Committee on Natural Resources, which is chaired by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., who, according to the article below, and along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., have both been indicated their support of NREPA in past years. This year sure seems to be lining up to be a snowmobilers worst nightmare when it comes to access – or lack there of – to our public lands.
 
NREPA is the grand daddy of all wilderness bills. This bill proposes to implement large portions of the "Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative" or also referred to as "The Wildlands Project", and as previously stated, it would designate somewhere between 23 and 24 million MORE acres as wilderness in the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. Do you enjoy snowmobiling in any of these states? If the answer is yes, then you do not want to see this bill become law.
 
Link to a general map (without detail boundary lines shown) of the proposed new wilderness areas (dark green):
http://www.wildrockies.org/nrepa/assets/pix/brochure/mapbig.jpg
 
Read the entire bill at this link:
http://maloney.house.gov/documents/environment/20090129_NREPA.pdf
 
Link to look up the contact information for your representative:
Lookup your U.S. House Representative
 
The following members on the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands are especially important to contact if they are your representative in Congress.

Mr. Raúl M. Grijalva, Arizona, Chairman
Mr. Rob Bishop, Utah, Ranking Republican Member
 
Democrats
Republicans
Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii
Grace F. Napolitano, California
Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Guam
Dan Boren, Oklahoma
Martin Heinrich, New Mexico
Peter A. DeFazio, Oregon
Maurice D. Hinchey, New York
Donna M. Christensen, Virgin Islands
Diana DeGette, Colorado
Ron Kind, Wisconsin
Lois Capps, California
Jay Inslee, Washington
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, South Dakota
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire
Niki Tsongas, Massachusetts
Pedro R. Pierluisi, Puerto Rico
Nick J. Rahall, II, West Virginia (ex officio)
Don Young, Alaska
Elton Gallegly, California
John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee
Jeff Flake, Arizona
Henry E. Brown, Jr., South Carolina
Louie Gohmert, Texas
Bill Shuster, Pennsylvania
Robert J. Wittman, Virginia
Paul C. Broun, Georgia
Mike Coffman, Colorado
Cynthia M. Lummis, Wyoming
Tom McClintock, California
Doc Hastings, Washington (ex officio)
 
Link to our previous SAWS Alert on NREPA from October 2007:
http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/Action_Alerts/07/SAWS_Action_Alert_-_Hearing_on_Northern_Rockies_Ecosystem_Protection_Act.htm

There is not much in this year’s version of the NREPA bill that has changed since our previous SAWS alert in 2007. The bill in this year’s Congress WILL have a different bill number. As of today, it does not appear that a bill number has been assigned yet.
 
Please write your representative to let them know that you are opposed to this bill and why, but DO NOT reference the old bill number from the last Congress, just refer to the bill as the "Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act" or NREPA for short. I have not included a deadline in this alert, as it is currently not scheduled for a hearing, but it is always best to contact your representative sooner rather than later.
 
Thank you in advance for acting on the recommendation in this alert.
 
 
Dave Hurwitz
Snowmobile Alliance of Western States
 
Copyright 2009, Snowmobile Alliance of Western States. All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to distribute this information, in whole or in part, as long as Snowmobile Alliance of Western States (SAWS) is acknowledged as the source. If you are not yet a member of SAWS, and would like receive our emails, please sign up on our web site today. SAWS is Free to join! http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org
 
 
Associated Press Article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_northern_rockies_wilderness.html
Bill would designate 23M acres of wilderness

By MATTHEW DALY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- A New York congresswoman has again introduced a wide-reaching wilderness protection bill that would ban logging, oil exploration and other development on 23 million acres across five Northwestern states.

As in previous years, the proposal by Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney drew criticism from some Western lawmakers who view it as an intrusion on their turf. The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act would designate millions of new wilderness acreage in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and add smaller amounts of wilderness in eastern Oregon and eastern Washington.

No member of Congress from any of the five states has agreed to co-sponsor the bill, which Maloney has pushed in Congress since 1993. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., is a co-sponsor of the latest version. The bill would create 9.5 million acres of new wilderness in Idaho, 7 million acres in Montana, 5 million acres in Wyoming, 750,000 acres in northeastern Oregon and 500,000 acres in eastern Washington.

Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., called the bill a "top-down approach" that does not account for impacts on the local economy or adequately protect access for hunting, fishing and other forms of recreation.

"Montana doesn't need Washington, D.C. imposing its will and telling us how to take care of our public lands," Rehberg said. "We're going to fight this. As a state that's almost one-third public lands, we have no choice."

Maloney, who represents New York City, said the bill would protect some of America's most beautiful and ecologically important lands while saving money and creating jobs.

"Many of America's most precious natural resources and wildlife are found in the Northern Rockies," she said, adding that the wilderness proposal "would help protect those resources by drawing wilderness boundaries according to science, not politics."

The measure would also mitigate the effect of climate change on wildlife by protecting corridors that allow grizzly bears, caribou, elk, bison, wolves and other wildlife to migrate to cooler areas, she said.

The plan would forbid most development across broad swaths of public land in the five states. It calls for the removal of more than 6,000 miles of existing roads, primarily within national forests. Old logging roads would be removed, and habitat restored in most of those areas, creating about 2,300 jobs and leading to a more sustainable economic base in the region, said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Montana-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies, an advocacy group.

The wilderness measure has been introduced every Congress for nearly two decades, but has only twice made it so far as a public hearing - in 1994 and in 2007.

A significant number of Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, spoke favorably of the bill in 2007, and even more lawmakers from both parties are likely to back the bill this year, Garrity said.

"We think we're making tremendous progress. We have a new president who is much more supportive of wilderness, and we think we have an excellent chance" of winning congressional approval, Garrity said.

A key argument in favor of the bill is a plan to dismantle old logging roads and restore habitat in many areas that have been clear-cut by logging, Garrity said. "This bill puts people to work" in a manner reminiscent of the old Civilian Conservation Corps created in the New Deal,

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/Action_Alerts/09/SAWS_Action_Alert_-_NREPA_introduced_in_111th_Congress.htm

 

[Elkaholic daWg]

  Dave Hurwitz..... Good Man. SAWS Great organization started by Dave. Cle Elum Sledhead on Snowest and BCR. The man knows of which he speaks. Stood beside him in Index in 2003 protesting  the designation  (NOT creation) of wild sky, which also needed roads and bridges removed.

[wolfbait]

Campaign is on to save 75,000 acres in Cascades
By Craig Welch

Seattle Times staff reporter

One day near the end of 1996, traffic piled up on Snoqualmie Pass as rubberneckers spotted a restless gray wolf, trapped by snowbanks, pacing along Interstate 90 - presumably seeking a clear shot across the deadly thoroughfare.

The image captures what many biologists consider the single greatest threat to wildlife across the country: segregated habitat.

When a coalition of Seattle environmental groups today formally kicks off a three-year campaign to buy 73,655 acres of private land linking the north and south Cascades, they'll also mark an intersection of two leading trends in conservation.

Attempts to purchase private land as a means of saving it are on the rise, and experts contend land-conservation efforts are focusing more on the need to connect land to areas previously preserved rather than simply buying more isolated parcels.

The number of local and regional land trusts rose 63 percent in the past decade, to 1,213, with the biggest increase in the West. Last year, of 102 ballot initiatives in 22 states that proposed to put tax money toward acquiring land for open space, only 10 failed. And a blistering U.S. economy and booming outdoor recreation have sent contributions to land trusts and nature conservancies skyrocketing.

In Florida last year, the Suwannee River Water Management District paid $5.5 million to buy development rights in the 30,000-acre Mallory Swamp, a black-bear playground. Biologists hope to make it the centerpiece of a corridor system that would let threatened black bears, endangered red wolves and panthers roam from central Florida's Osceola National Forest to St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge near Tallahassee.

Corridors for critters

"We're losing more and more land to development, just as we're recognizing the value of maintaining paths between them for critters to move through," said Jean Heller, director of the Land Trust Alliance in Washington, D.C., an umbrella group for organizations that purchase private lands for conservation.

The groups involved in today's announcement range from the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance and Seattle Audubon Society to the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club. Calling themselves the Cascades Conservation Partnership, the groups hope to raise up to $30 million in private donations. They want to match that with $100 million from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The money would go to purchase dozens of square-mile tracts along the crest of the Cascades, land that has been in private ownership in a checkerboard pattern since the federal government granted it to the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1864. Roughly 90 percent of it belongs to Plum Creek Timber.

But while the campaign comes on the heels of last year's successful effort to raise millions to purchase logging rights on part of the Loomis Forest in Okanogan County, those involved know they face a big task.

Between the price tag and the amount of land, the purchase would rank among the largest land-conservation efforts in the country.

"We recognize we're being kind of bold and audacious," said Bill Pope, a former Microsoft attorney turned environmental activist who plans to exploit his connections among the Northwest's high-tech elite.

"But if we can raise $17 million to save 25,000 acres in a forest no one has ever really heard of, then I think we can raise $25 million to save 75,000 acres that's right in Seattle's back yard."

Publicly, Washington's two U.S. senators have expressed support, along with the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Plum Creek Timber. Staffers for Republican Sen. Slade Gorton and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray are expected to be on hand for today's announcement in Seattle.

But the federal money would come through a subcommittee chaired by Gorton, whose staff warns the timetable might be ambitious.

"The proposal is certainly realistic, but it may not get done in that time frame," said spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman, adding that Gorton's interior appropriations subcommittee faced more than 3,000 funding requests last year.

"If Slade can get $30 million in a single year for anything, it would probably be for salmon recovery."

Still, she ruled nothing out. Much of the public financing would depend, she said, on how successful the group is at raising private funds.

Covering a 30-mile swath along I-90, the chunks of land in question would link the 394,000-acre Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area with the 51,000-acre Norse Peak Wilderness. Declared biologically important years ago by federal managers and conservationists, the land contains ponderosa pines and 800-year-old Douglas-fir forests and is home to many of the region's most popular recreation spots, including the Cle Elum River and Olallie Meadows.

It also has spotted-owl and grizzly bear-habitat and endangered salmon runs.

"This is really the last place left on the crest of the Cascades that's not in public ownership," said Mariann Armijo, a former Forest Service biologist now working for the partnership.

But some of the areas - a stretch of the North Fork of the Taneum River, for example - include old-growth forests targeted for logging as soon as next spring. Much of it includes or is next to scarred hillsides. Many acres are criss-crossed with logging roads.

No one disputes that purchasing the land would increase the likelihood that species of plants, animals and amphibians would flourish.

Regulations to protect wildlife habitat aren't as restrictive on private land as they are on public. Buffer zones around streams and spotted owls are narrower. Clear-cuts are larger. Road densities are higher. Even though much of the nearby public land is in designated roadless tracts, the federal government can't outright ban landowners from building roads across federal land to access their own property.

Biologists in the past 20 years have found that if there are no corridors between tracts of land, some large mammals struggle. Grizzlies and wolves, for example, require hundreds of square miles of range. Forced into isolated areas, they face "genetic bottlenecks" - or inbreeding - which decreases the likelihood of long-term survival.

"Even small mammals can go extinct if they're limited to local populations," said Bill Noble, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Olympia. "They need that new influx of genetic material."

Experts also contend that heavily logged and roaded corridors aren't sufficient. Study after study shows the greatest threat to bears is contact with humans, which increases exponentially where there are roads.

Rights of passage

Endangered gray wolves, meanwhile, tend to alter their range based on their prey, such as elk. But elk tend to abandon the large clear-cuts typical of private land in favor of smaller openings. If elk stay clear of the corridor, Armijo said, so will wolves.

When the U.S. Department of Transportation proposes in coming years to widen I-90 between Snoqualmie and Cle Elum, environmentalists and wildlife managers plan to present them with plans for underpasses or overpasses so that wildlife can cross without meeting traffic.

If those bridges connect wild areas to land still occupied by logging trucks, however, the point might be moot.

"That's the problem," said Fred Munson, who is coordinating the campaign. "If we do nothing, eventually we'll just have to separate ecosystems."

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20000523&slug=4022615

[runamuk]

12. Plum Creek Timber Co., Kittitas County, Wash., 170,000 acres; northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, grizzly bear, and gray wolf.

Griz in Kittitas county? When do they plan this stupid move?

I knew of griz sightings in Kittitas and wolf sightings this was back in 1998 they have been there quite a while no one would deny or confirm on the record but I heard the wolves with my own ears  I asked and was told it was being kept quiet to protect them, same with the griz  I guess no one was paying attention back then ...it still amazes me that its only become an issue in the last couple years I guess they did a good job of keeping a lid on the info