Dear Gov. Otter,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak up to save the gray wolf.
My wolf position is: These wolves need protection from hunters and ranchers who would indiscriminately kill them. Where was the state Fish and Game 25 years ago? Why did they allow the wolves to be exterminated?
I believe that the SNRA and other designated areas be "off limits" as sanctuary habitat. Ranchers who insist bringing cattle into mountain pasture areas do this at their own risk. We have been through this wolf problem whereby ranchers and hunters simply killed them off 25 years ago. How many times do we have to re-educate these people that they are the ones that are the killers. They are the ones invading wolf habitat, by allowing cattle to roam all over mountain pastures.
This bad-mouthing of wolves has to stop. Wolves keep Idaho wild. They deserve sanctuary and people who are willing to enjoy the public lands need to be safe from 30.06 missiles in the SNRA and all recreation or other "safe" areas.
If wolves venture into areas outside of designated areas then they are on their own. CEEI would like to participate in any plan that would save these species from any plan to shoot to kill. The wild West posse mentality has no place in a modern state that has lost much of the wild just in the last 50 years.
It will take 500 years to restore Idaho to recover from mining, lumbering, and cattle grazing and hunting of these lands that need to be protected as habitat for all creatures that live here, including humans, and of course it may simply change into high mountain shrublands, and become another northern "look a like" New Mexico.
In the light of the climate change we are already experiencing (the last eight years of drought), our efforts on a state level should include conservation-minded planning, as it will take every effort we can muster to save what we have. The aspen trees are beginning to disappear right here. See www.ceei-climate.org.
CEEI simply suggests that the time has come to stop buying into more trouble and behaving in a manner that respects life and doesn't destroy it arbitrarily.
Max Casebeau
Center for Environmental Education and Information
Sun Valley
