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Author Topic: Wildlife managers plan to use helicopter gunners and government trappers in Lolo  (Read 9581 times)

Offline denali

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Posted: Friday, December 09, 2011 10:11 AM
http://www.capitalpress.com/content/AP-lolo-wolves-120911?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

State to target wolves in Idaho's Lolo region

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) -- Wildlife managers plan to use helicopter gunners and government trappers to kill wolves roaming the Lolo Zone, a remote, rugged area in the north-central part of the state once populated by some of Idaho's biggest elk herds.

Trapping efforts will begin later this month, coinciding with the current hunting and trapping season for wolves, said Dave Cadwallader, regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Helicopter gunning will begin later this winter.

Both efforts are part of a new multipronged strategy designed to better manage and control wolves in the region where elk herds are struggling to maintain historic population numbers.

"My goal is not to wait," Cadwallader told the Lewiston Tribune in a story published Friday. "Let's layer all of those tools over the top of each other and try to implement each of them."

Idaho's wolf-hunting season opened in late August, but so far only six wolves have been killed in the Lolo Zone, which includes the Upper Lochsa and North Fork Clearwater river basins. State wildlife managers had hoped to remove up to 60 wolves this season from the area, which has seen its elk numbers decline from a high of about 16,000 in the late 1980s to about 2,000 today.

The steep drop has been blamed on a combination of poor habitat conditions and predation from wolves, mountain lions and black bears. Researchers from the department recently determined wolves are the primary cause of elk mortality in the zone.

This spring, shortly after Endangered Species Act protections were lifted on wolves, the department used helicopter gunning to kill five wolves. The effort was suspended because of its high cost and low success rate, which was blamed on wolves and elk moving to lower elevations where snow had melted.

This year, aerial gunning will be timed to occur when snowpacks are heavy even at lower elevations. Snow makes the animals easier to see. Despite tight budgets, Cadwallader said the agency will resume paying for the hunting of wolves from the air to help preserve Lolo elk and the revenue once generated when hunters from around the world came to the region.

"Certainly everyone understands we have an issue here and we are going to have to spend some money to try to fix it," he said. "We have been told we will have some money to pay for helicopter time and wages for trappers if we can find some."

State officials expect the intensified efforts will irritate wolf advocates, who are already skeptical of leaving wolf management up to states such as Idaho and Montana.

Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, called the extra wolf control measures frustrating and above and beyond the careful management state officials promised before delisting of the animals.

"The states were talking about measured actions and it turns out as soon as federal protection were lifted they are using every possible means they can to kill as many wolves as they can and there is nothing measured or rational about this," Suckling said.

Through Thursday hunters killed 153 wolves in the state and trappers had killed one. There is no quota on the number of wolves that can be killed during the hunting and trapping season. Department director Virgil Moore said he wants to significantly reduce the wolf population but stay comfortably above the 150 level that would bring a federal review and could lead to putting them back under federal protections.


Hello...hello.. anyone at WDFW see whats going on next door?..didn't think so  >:(
Honesty is the best policy,  but insanity is a better defense.

Offline Ridgeratt

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I posted this in the WFW site but it needs to be here as well!

Ramblings from the Ratt

 I have sat and Watched/ Read/Listened to all the Wolf postings and read all the threads as to what everyone thinks needs to be done.

First there is no one who has an accurate guess as to just how many wolves that we have in this State. Be it the WDFG or the Do-Gooders who are promoting them,  the USFWS, or the members of this forum.

They don't count the transit wolves who cross borders either from Idaho to Washington or From Canada to the US. Even though the animals in question are preying on the resources here.

If the season was opened tomorrow morning in this State to a Tag that could be used 365 days we would not effect the outcome one instance. We will never as sportsman do significant damage to the resident numbers. For every wolf reported how many are never seen?

When the wolves were eliminated from the lower 48 it was due to Aerial gunners and a product call 1080 which had a tremendous side effect on what it also killed.

I can say a prime example of the ineffectiveness would be to look at the coyotes we have with all the hunting pressure they get how bad have we decimated their number's?

Not trying to thread jack just tieing this to one.

Offline CAMPMEAT

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Good post Rat !
I couldn't care less about what anybody says..............

Offline norsepeak

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Idaho has learned a hard and very exspensive lesson.  Too bad WDFW can't see that far east, instead they have to try the same thing and expect a different outcome....hmmm, what's that called again? :bash:

Offline ICEMAN

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Idaho has learned a hard and very exspensive lesson.  Too bad WDFW can't see that far east, instead they have to try the same thing and expect a different outcome....hmmm, what's that called again? :bash:

It is the definition of insanity.
molṑn labé

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Kill your television....do it now.....

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Offline Elkrunner

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I am not surprised....Is anyone worried about the road that we are heading down??? :hello:

Offline norsepeak

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exactly Iceman!

Offline bearpaw

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Idaho has learned a hard and very exspensive lesson.  Too bad WDFW can't see that far east, instead they have to try the same thing and expect a different outcome....hmmm, what's that called again? :bash:


I'm not so sure they can't see it. How can anyone be that stupid. I am beginning to think they want to destroy the hunting in Washington. :twocents:

Good writeup ridge, maybe I misread, but I don't think there was any arial gunning when they first eliminated wolves. That's been used in modern times to try and control wolf numbers in Alaska and Idaho.
Americans are systematically advocating, legislating, and voting away each others rights. Support all user groups & quit losing opportunity!

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Offline Bigshooter

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Idaho has learned a hard and very exspensive lesson.  Too bad WDFW can't see that far east, instead they have to try the same thing and expect a different outcome....hmmm, what's that called again? :bash:


I'm not so sure they can't see it. How can anyone be that stupid. I am beginning to think they want to destroy the hunting in Washington. :twocents:

Good writeup ridge, maybe I misread, but I don't think there was any arial gunning when they first eliminated wolves. That's been used in modern times to try and control wolf numbers in Alaska and Idaho.

I thought 1080 on horse meat dropped out of helicopters.  And a bounty on wolf heads is how we got rid of them?   :dunno:
Welcome to liberal America, where the truth is condemned and facts are ignored so as not to "offend" anyone


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Offline Hunter Dug

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They cry about how much money it cost to bring back the population and now they cry about how much it cost to manage them.  I have an idea just do away with all of it.  Put all that moneys back in to the managment of our big game animals.

Offline JimmyHoffa

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If they want to save some money, I'll go in the helicopter for FREE and bring my own guns and ammo! 8)

Offline mulehunter

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If they want to save some money, I'll go in the helicopter for FREE and bring my own guns and ammo! 8)
       :yeah:   X100

Offline mulehunter

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http://www.kboi2.com/news/local/State-to-target-wolves-in-Idahos-Lolo-region--135326263.html?m=y&smobile=y&c=y

Look like News are making too Loud to American. Good Example for Anti Wolf why we have to fix their b.s.   :tup:

Offline Ridgeratt

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Idaho has learned a hard and very exspensive lesson.  Too bad WDFW can't see that far east, instead they have to try the same thing and expect a different outcome....hmmm, what's that called again? :bash:


I'm not so sure they can't see it. How can anyone be that stupid. I am beginning to think they want to destroy the hunting in Washington. :twocents:

Good writeup ridge, maybe I misread, but I don't think there was any arial gunning when they first eliminated wolves. That's been used in modern times to try and control wolf numbers in Alaska and Idaho.

Here is an early write up.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1047&context=vpc7&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dearliest%2520use%2520of%2520aerial%2520predator%2520control%2520%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CB0QFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcommons.unl.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1047%2526context%253Dvpc7%26ei%3DxAHkTtbqMcbY2gXZitSoBA%26usg%3DAFQjCNEz8eapFK0t3mLrV4nSApV_smcY7A#search=%22earliest%20use%20aerial%20predator%20control%22

Offline Yummy and Tasty Animal

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Dear IDFW,

I will opperate as a gunner free of charge.  I am available every Saturday and Sunday and Holidays.

Sincerely,

YATA

P.S. Can I use a machine gun?

 


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