Wolf supporters howling | CJOnline.com

By Marc Murrell

The reintroduction of wolves to western habitats has met with plenty of controversy. Landowners, sportsmen and conservation groups have been on one side or the other since the project began. And now the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) is calling the bluff of pro-wolf groups like Defenders of Wildlife, Western Wildlife Conservancy and others for their manipulative use of data concerning the relationships between elk and wolves.

The rub lies in these groups’ use of RMEF statistics that supposedly show an increase in elk populations in the northern Rockies as a result of the wolf reintroduction program. Letters to the editor in western newspapers by these groups, coupled with Western Wildlife Conservancy Executive Director Kirk Robinson’s testimony before Utah lawmakers prompted the RMEF to take action and set the record straight.

“The theory that wolves haven’t had a significant adverse impact on some elk populations is not accurate. We’ve become all too familiar with these groups’ tactics of cherry-picking select pieces of information to support their own agenda, even when it is misleading,” said David Allen, RMEF president and CEO. “We will not allow that claim to go unchallenged.”

The RMEF gets its data from state wildlife agencies. Information shows that elk populations are expanding in the northern Rockies, but only in areas where wolves aren’t present.

And quite the opposite is true where elk share habitat with wolves such as the greater Yellowstone area. Since the reintroduction of gray wolves to the area in the mid-1990s, the northern Yellowstone elk herd has plummeted from 17,000 animals to just over 7,000 animals. Other localities in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are also documenting downward trends.

Additionally, some research shows that high wolf numbers in areas can cause elk to experience nutritional problems, lower body weights and declining birth rates.

“Every wildlife conservation agency, both state and federal, working at ground zero of wolf restoration —Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming — has abundant data to demonstrate how under-managed wolf populations can compromise local elk herds and local livestock production,” Allen said. “There’s just no dispute, and emotion-over-science is not the way to professionally manage wildlife.”

The RMEF continues to support state-regulated wolf management to include hunting and other viable methods. When populations of furbearers like wolves get too high without any control, disease becomes a problem as seen in packs of Yellowstone wolves.

“When wolves are too abundant, they’re more susceptible to diseases, just like all wildlife. The viruses and mange now spreading through wolf packs is another sign of way too many wolves,” said Allen. “Defenders of Wildlife would like to spin sick wolves as a reason to end hunting. But real conservationists know that diseased wildlife populations need better management. Hunting as a management tool delivers that, period.”

“Remember, pro-wolf groups make their living by prolonging this conflict,” he added. “There is no real incentive for them to admit that wolves are overly recovered. Fundraising is their major motive and they’ve built a goldmine by filing lawsuits and preaching that nature will find its own equilibrium between predators and prey if man would just leave it alone.

“That’s a myth. The truth is that people are the most important part of the equation. This isn’t the Wild West anymore. People live here — actually, quite a lot of us. So our land and resources must be managed. Wildlife must be managed. Radical spikes and dips in populations show that we should be doing it better. It’s not profitable for plaintiffs, but the rest of us would be better served if the conflict ended and conservation professionals were allowed to get on with their business of managing wildlife, including a well regulated hunting strategy.”

The RMEF first got involved in wolf litigation in 2009 and supported defendant agencies by filing legal briefs in federal court to help delist wolves and proceed with hunting — “facts conveniently ignored by groups who misuse our name, data and credibility to prolong the conflict,” Allen said.

“We stand for elk and other wildlife and what is happening right now is simply not good wildlife management,” he concluded.

via Wolf supporters howling | CJOnline.com.

Lawsuits over wolf hunting filed in Mont., Wyo.

By MATTHEW BROWN and BEN NEARY

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A pair of federal judges will decide which states in the Northern Rockies have enough gray wolves to allow public hunting, as the bitter debate over the region’s wolves heads to courts in Wyoming and Montana.

Environmentalists filed a lawsuit in Missoula on Tuesday seeking to restore protections for more than 1,300 wolves in Montana and Idaho. The Obama administration in April upheld a Bush-era decision to take wolves off the endangered species list in those two states.

The lawsuit could block regulated wolf hunts slated to begin this fall and scuttle a plan to remove all the predators from part of north central Idaho.

Gray wolves remain on the endangered species list in Wyoming, but in another lawsuit, Wyoming attorney General Bruce Salzburg on Tuesday asked a federal judge in Cheyenne to clear the way for hunts in his state. Salzburg rejected claims by federal officials that local laws were too weak to protect Wyoming’s 300 wolves.

Gray wolves were listed as endangered in 1974, after they had been wiped out across the lower 48 states in the early 20th century by hunting and government-sponsored poisoning. Following an intensive reintroduction program, there are now an estimated 1,645 wolves in the Northern Rockies, not including this year’s pups.

“There’s absolutely no question this population is fully recovered. There’s wolves moving all over the place,” said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Click link below for full story!

via The Associated Press: Lawsuits over wolf hunting filed in Mont., Wyo..

BillingsGazette.com :: Study: Idaho wolves hitting cow elk hard

By ERIC BARKER

Of the Lewiston (Idaho) Tribune

Idaho Fish and Game biologists have established that wolves are the primary cause of death of radio-collared cow elk in the Lolo hunting zone, where cow elk numbers are projected to be shrinking by 13 percent a year.

The department could use that conclusion, from its continuing study of elk, to again seek permission to authorize federal trappers to cull wolves in the remote area of central Idaho. But officials would rather see wolves removed from the endangered species list so wolf packs could be thinned through hunting.

“I just think it’s generally more acceptable with folks to manage populations through hunting than any other way,” said Jim Unsworth, deputy director of the department at Boise. “We are going to monitor the delisting process. If that occurs, we are going to pursue the hunting option. That is certainly our preferred option.”

In case delisting is delayed or the department gets tied up in lawsuits, Fish and Game commissioners told the department to look at the options available under federal wolf-management rules, Unsworth said.  Click Link Below for Full Story!

BillingsGazette.com :: Study: Idaho wolves hitting cow elk hard.