Finally, the science of wildlife management has won out over emotional rhetoric.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy has finally ruled that wolf hunting seasons—controlled, regulated, long-overdue seasons—could go forward in Montana and Idaho. A coalition of anti-hunting and environmental groups had sought to stop the hunts as part of a larger lawsuit to keep wolves on the Endangered Species List—despite the fact that wolves in the area now exceed the recovery goals set for delisting by more than 500 percent.
Throughout years of court actions, NRA, Safari Club, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and other conservation groups called for the wolf management decisions to be based on sound science, not the emotional rants of groups that fundamentally oppose hunting.
Commenting on the issue, NRA's Manager of Hunting Policy Darren La Sorte said, "The significance of this decision in the fight to ensure that science-based wildlife management prevails over radical efforts to dictate management practices through emotion-driven litigation simply cannot be overstated. If Judge Molloy had once again ruled in favor of the radicals, it would have dealt a terrible blow to the foundation of America’s wildlife conservation model – the model that has made our country the envy of the rest of the world.
"No reasonable person," La Sorte continued, "can contest the fact that wolf populations in the Rockies far exceed the initial targets set for delisting by the US Fish and Wildlife Service biolgists. The anti-hunting zealots' litigation kept wolves from being hunted while the predators decimated moose and elk populations, denying hunters many opportunities they would have otherwise had. The antis had their cake and were eating it, too. This is a very bad day for the Humane Society of the United States and the other extremists. It’s a great day for wolves, their prey populations and, most of all, hunters and others who truly care about America’s wildlife."
Antis' Misleading Statements
In the rhetoric used to argue delisting, and to try and stop the hunts, animal rights and environmental groups routinely and dishonestly portrayed the states’ management plans as a death knell for the entire species. A few examples:
• “Aggressive hunting plans in Idaho and Montana will dramatically reduce gray wolf populations and jeopardize the future of gray wolves in the northern Rockies,” said Melanie Stein, Associate Regional Representative, Sierra Club.
• “We will work to stop this indiscriminate wolf killing,” said Doug Honnold of Earthjustice.
• “Legal action is necessary to prevent the states from implementing management schemes that have the primary purpose of eliminating, rather than conserving wolves,” stated Michael Garrity of the Alliance of the Wild Rockies.
None of this hyperbole is true. Montana and Idaho have both developed scientifically defensible wolf management plans and considered thousands of public comments on them. The plans had to be approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the USFWS will monitor those plans for five years. In one other state, Wyoming, the only reason wolves were not delisted is because USFWS did not approve its wolf management plan.
Plans in Idaho call for no more than 220 wolves to be taken by hunters, and no more than 75 in Montana. Idaho’s wolf hunt began Sept. 1 in the state’s Lolo and Sawtooth wolf zones. Both states have a combined estimated wolf population of about 1,350 animals. Since wolves reproduce at a rate of about 20 percent annually, both quotas are probably very conservative in terms of keeping a healthy balance of animals.
Revenue for the States
More than 12,300 hunters bought wolf tags in Idaho, as of Sept. 4. At $11.75 for resident tags alone, that’s a minimum of $144,525 for the state’s Department of Fish and Game. Montana resident tags sold for $19, and more than 7,000 have already bought them, so figure at least another $133,000 for that state’s conservation programs.
Beyond the benefit that hunting will bring to the wolf population itself, it’s about time that the wishes of Montana and Idaho residents were respected. Wolf predation on livestock is well-documented. In Idaho alone in 2007, wolves killed 52 cattle, 150 sheep and six dogs. And in mid-August of this year, wolves killed 120 sheep in a single incident on a ranch near Dillon, Mont. That’s more than the 111 sheep wolves killed in the whole state in 2008.
Wolves and Big Game
As for the toll that wolves take on deer, elk and moose, it’s enough to alarm many hunters, not to mention guides and outfitters whose livelihoods depend on strong big game numbers. Tony Mayer, Idaho resident and co-founder of saveourelk.com said, “It’s impossible for the prey base to withstand the onslaught of wolves. I’ve seen first-hand the carnage, and I don’t see how any sane person could not see that something needs to be done.”
Professional game managers agree. “Where wolves live in Idaho, their prey of choice is elk,” said Cal Groen, director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. “There is no question that wolves have affected elk hunting in Idaho. Elk hunting has been reduced in some areas because of unmanaged wolves.”
“Montana’s approach to recovery has always been open, balanced, and based on science,” said state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Joe Maurier. “Montanans have lived with wolves since the mid 1980s, about 10 years before wolves were released in Yellowstone National Park. We’ve all worked long and hard to reach the day when Montana would fully bring wolves into the state’s wildlife management programs.”
Find out more on these two states’ wolf seasons:
Idaho: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/hunt/wolf/
Montana: http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/planahunt/wolf.html
Groups seeking to keep wolves on the Endangered Species List and deny Montana and Idaho the right to management include:
Earthjustice
Defenders of Wildlife
The Humane Society of the United States
Natural Resources Defense Council
Sierra Club
Center for Biological Diversity
Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance
Friends of the Clearwater
Alliance for the Wild Rockies
Oregon Wild
Cascadia Wildlands
Western Watersheds Project
Wildlands Network
Hells Canyon Preservation Council
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Editor’s Note: Watch NRAhuntersrights.org for a personal account from the first hunter to take a wolf in Idaho’s season—and the harassment he got from anti-hunters.
