In 2008, if no legal obstacles stand in the way, Idaho will officially have control of the state's growing wolf population, now estimated to be 650.
Thereafter, Idaho's Fish and Game Commission presumably will issue hunting permits to begin reducing that number, by perhaps as much as half, which is what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates is all that's needed to keep wolves from going extinct.
State management of wolves will be proposed by the federal wildlife agency late next month. Then the public will have 60 days to comment, followed by federal deliberations before a decision, considered inevitable, is made.
Idaho wildlife officials will have a tricky responsibility on their hands.
Ranchers have been itching to shoot wolves on sight to prevent cattle and sheep herds from being attacked and killed by roaming wolf packs. Some hunters believe wolves are destroying big game herds.
Environmentalists and biologists are justifiably worried that state management and the politics that come with it could lead to loose enforcement and a bloodbath of wolves that were reintroduced to the state in the late 1990s.
Wildlife in all species is vital to keeping nature in balance. The loss of one species in time affects all others.
As the delisting of wolves from the endangered species roster commences, Idaho's best minds in wildlife management need to develop a sensible method to prevent extermination of wolves simply because they are feared and despised by some who don't understand the wolf's importance in nature.
Pat Murphy
