Post by: denali on December 11, 2010, 09:31:51 PM
|Capital Press
Wolf plan work to continue in spring
Shuffle of natural resource agencies may affect effort
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Work on Washington state's wolf management plan likely will shift into high gear after the 2011 legislative session, a state Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman said.
A Nov. 30 meeting of the state Wolf Working Group was canceled because of a snowstorm, but no heavy work was planned anyway, said Madonna Luers, a department spokeswoman in Spokane. The agency has been drafting a wolf management plan since 2007 and is to present a final plan to the Fish and Wildlife Commission in August.
The Nov. 30 meeting at Central Washington University in Ellensburg would have been the 17-member group's first meeting in more than a year. It was intended more for meeting the department's new director, Phil Anderson, and other new staff, and to receive updates on wolf populations and public comments, Luers said.
The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee was to be updated on the plan Dec. 10 in Olympia.
What the committee might do or what may happen with the plan because of the state budget crisis and potential merging of natural resource agencies is anybody's guess, Luers said.
"A lot could change between now and the end of session as to what we will do and how we are staffed and organized. Natural resources agency reform will be a big issue in the interest of saving money," she said.
The Washington Cattlemen's Association, a member of the working group, is concerned about loss of cattle.
The draft plan and legislation passed last year calls for compensation for livestock loss to wolves, but only $30,000 in federal and private funding has been set aside. The plan allows killing wolves to protect livestock only after the gray wolf population is recovered in the state and is no longer listed as an endangered species.
The cattlemen's association has called for a population viability analysis to prove whether the state has enough wildlife to support hunting and 15 breeding pair of wolves called for in the plan.
Luers said such an analysis likely would prove there's enough wildlife to support far more than 15 breeding pairs. She said other groups want an analysis and that the department is considering it.
The gray wolf is listed as an endangered species under federal and state laws. State law requires the state to adopt a management plan even though the wolf is not being reintroduced to the state but is coming in on its own from Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia.
There are wolf packs in Pend Oreille and Okanogan counties and two more are suspected in the far northeast and southeast corners of the state, Luers said. The Okanogan pack lost its female and may not be classified as a pack by spring, she said.
Madonna Luers, a department spokeswoman in Spokane said such an analysis likely would prove there's enough wildlife to support far more than 15 breeding pairs.
that statement leaves little doubt how this will play out :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash:
Post by: Bob33 on December 11, 2010, 09:40:55 PM
Post by: grundy53 on December 12, 2010, 08:26:25 PM
Post by: wolfbait on December 13, 2010, 08:16:05 PM
Pelican-Wolves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1c1NfZtHck&feature=player_embedded#)
Post by: bearhunter99 on December 13, 2010, 08:23:49 PM
Post by: DoubleJ on December 13, 2010, 08:37:03 PM
Post by: wolfbait on December 13, 2010, 08:38:01 PM
Everyone needs to attend any public hearings because you know the DOW will definitely have lobbyists at them. More than 15 breeding pairs will destroy this state.
WA already has more than 15 bps, and WDFW knows this so do a few who are on W-H. At this point it really does not matter how many bps are in the wolf plan. WDFW will not confirm, bottom line Washington will be plum out of hunting in a few years. For an example, I talk to a guy Saturday night who owns a business in Wenatchee he deals with many people who ranch and farm in the surrounding area. He told us that the Clockum has at least three packs of wolves, he also said that the in the Chelan area they now have a bad wolf problem. People in the ranching community have been taking care of wolves for along time now and the WDFW know this. But yet because they would have to admit that WA has more wolves then they are claiming they are closing their eyes.
Post by: wolfbait on December 13, 2010, 10:06:01 PM
December 11, 2010
On November 20, 2010, Kansas City Star reporter Brent Frazee wrote about a wolf shot and killed on opening day of hunting season by Andrew Protenic. One comment that Frazee made said:
Though they long ago inhabited the state, they disappeared in the late 1800s due to habitat loss and unregulated hunting. Today, they’re listed as a protected species in Missouri.
Jim Beers, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and Special Agent, took issue with this article and the information contained in it. Here is his response.
Subject: 19 Nov. Article on Wolf Shot in Carroll County
I just received a copy of your 19 November article concerning the 104 lb. (wolf?, coyote?, dog? -actually they are all the same species) shot in Carroll County.
First of all, the current law situation regarding wolves that makes the shooter liable for serious punishment (felony, fine, imprisonment, loss of voting rights, loss of gun rights if it is judged a wolf based on DNA examination in a laboratory) of an animal legally taken (if declared a coyote) is not only absurd but an insult to all Americans, the Constitution, and our American way of life.
Second, you have unwittingly, I assume, spread one of the lies prevalent in the shameful efforts by bureaucrats and activists to establish wolves throughout the Lower 48 states. Wolf populations did NOT “decline greatly by the mid-1930′s due to unregulated hunting and habitat loss”: wolves declined and disappeared because of persistent determination for over 200 years by rural Americans using every means possible to rid the nation of wolves and their impacts on humans from death, maiming, and livestock losses to losses of big game herds and rural “domestic tranquility”. Wolves did and can, as proven every day, live in any climate and human societal arrangement so the “loss of habitat” canard is a prevarication of the highest order.
I know whereof I speak, I am a retired US Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife biologist and Special Agent.
Jim Beers
http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/2010/12/11/wolf-shot-in-missouri-jim-beers-rebuts-newspaper-account/ (http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/2010/12/11/wolf-shot-in-missouri-jim-beers-rebuts-newspaper-account/)