Fantastic Big Game Hunting Opportunity in Idaho (This Year!) (Hopefully...)

[Big Bill]

IDAHO FISH AND GAME
HEADQUARTERS NEWS RELEASE
Boise, ID

Date: March 6, 2009
Contact: Ed Mitchell
(208) 334-3700

Wolf delisting rule announced

Idaho Fish and Game officials welcomed the announcement Friday, March 6, that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar affirmed the decision to delist the gray wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

"We applaud this effort," Fish and Game Director Cal Groen said. "This is good news for wolves, elk, rural communities and hunters. I believe this action will help defuse the animosity and anger associated with wolves when we can manage wolves in concert with our other big game species."

The Endangered Species Act was not meant to keep animals listed forever; it was designed to turn management back to the states, he said.

Friday's announcement doesn't include Wyoming, because that state's wolf management plan has not met the requirements of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Salazar said. Idaho and Montana have approved wolf management plans.

"I don't believe we should hold these two states hostage," Salazar said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which made the decision to delist gray wolves in Idaho and Montana in January, will send the delisting rule to the Federal Register for publication. The rule would take effect in mid to late April, 30 days after publication.

When delisting becomes official, Idaho would again take over managing wolves under state law adopted in 2008 and under a wolf population management plan also adopted last year.

"Our plan is to manage wolves as we do other big game," Groen said.

Fish and Game is ready to apply the same professional wildlife management practices to wolves as it has applied to all big game species, which all have recovered from low populations during the early 1900s, he said.

Wolves were all but extirpated in Idaho by the 1930s. They were declared endangered in 1974, and a federal recovery effort brought 35 wolves to central Idaho in 1995 and 1996. Wolf numbers have grown steadily since then, to a minimum of 846 today.

Fish and Game has supported recovery efforts. Based on the Legislature's 2002 Wolf Conservation Plan, Fish and Game biologists developed a wolf population management plan, adopted by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission in March 2008.

Fish and Game will propose wolf hunting seasons this fall, subject to Fish and Game Commission approval.

For information contact Fish and Game Deputy Director Jim Unsworth at 208-334-3700.

The Fish and U.S. Wildlife Service delisting documents are available at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/wildlife/wolves/

http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/releases/view.cfm?NewsID=4812

 

[Big Bill]

I hope we can kill all the wolves the Idaho F&G allocates!

Pack of wolves spotted just north of Hailey (Idaho) near subdivision
By Benito Baeza

Story Published: Mar 13, 2009 at 9:57 PM CDT

03/13/09

For several days now, Wood River residents have been seeing new visitors to their back yards. A pack of wolves have set up camp in an area just north of Hailey and has some people worried.

Recently a pack of wolves known as the phantom pack have migrated south from around Galena Summit to just north of Hailey.

Billy Morgan, a wild life photographer and hunter says they've been watching the pack since they've made their way so close to homes.

Fish and Game officials say the wolves are doing what predators do, follow the food supply, something area residence are keeping a close eye on.

Ward says, "These wolves have been coming every night and running elk off the ridge into the subdivision and making a kill amongst these homes."

What has some people worried is how close the pack of 10 are coming so close to homes, with in hundreds of yards; it has prompted the Department of Fish and Game to issue a warning.

Regional Wildlife Biologist Regan Berkley says, "We are advising folks never to approach a wolf defiantly stay back from the wolves, and certainly one of the concerns is with dogs and other pets."

Berkley with Idaho Fish and Game says people should keep an eye on their pets and livestock; but some still think the wolves are too close for comfort and are getting a little too use to people being around.

According to Ward "This pack does not have fear of people. We’ve been within a hundred yards, people talking, the wolves come in they'll eat on these kills, this subdivision might not have a little kid, not alot of kids right now, but a lot of neighborhoods do in the south valley. We don't want wolves in our neighborhoods."

The situation brings up the hot-button issue of how wolves should be treated in Idaho. And it has strong opinions on both sides.

Lynn Stone, a wolf advocate says she isn't worried about a wolf coming into contact with people or their animals, she says they're still afraid of humans.

Stone says, "If you don't want wolves around your face clap your hands and yell at them, they're going to run these wolves got a little use to people and I think fish and game need to come out here with cracker shells and scare them out of here."

Fish and Game says it is certainly watching the situation very closely. Berkley says they'd have to take more drastic measures if the wolves were to attack a pet or livestock.

Find this article at:
http://www.kmvt.com/news/local/41244152.html

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I just saw the story I posted above on our local TV news tonight. They did a video report. The wolf pack is 10 strong and they are huge, ugly black vermin.

They were chasing a medium sized herd of elk off a ridge and down into a subdivision where they made a kill right in the middle of that subdivision. They emphasized that these wolves have no fear or man.

Hailey is about 12 miles south of the Ketchum/Sun Valley area. The Galina Summit area where these wolves are supposed to live is about 30 miles north of Sun Valley and around 40 miles north of Hailey.

This wolf pack has obviously been dogging this elk herd all that way from Galina to Hailey, because it is rare to see a band of elk this low in the Wood River Valley. The people who live in this area are mostly wealthy people. However, Hailey is the town in the valley where the Wood River High School is located. So, lots of families also live in Hailey.

This is a hard time of year for these elk, because there is still snow up in that valley and the cows should be conserving their strength so they can drop healthy calves soon. However, since they are running most of the time, due to this pack of vermin, they either won't have healthy calves; or if they do, the wolves will be there for an easy meal.

It’s so easy for anyone without blinders on to see that these predators are raising Hell with our citizens and elk herds. There is NO WAY that this can continue if Idaho expects to provide hunting opportunities for our sportsmen and sportsmen from all over the country who come here for the fantastic experience of hunting one of America’s premier big game animals.

And, BTW, the wolf advocate in the article is a woman with a beard and she was either crazy, drunk or most likely both. She thinks all it will take to scare the wolves away is a clap of the hands. What a moron!