Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Hunters vent wolf concerns

Foes of Canis lupus threaten ‘grassroots uprising’ if delisting delayed


By JASON KAUFFMAN
Express Staff Writer

Matt Douthit, president of Deer Hunters of Idaho, speaks to a large crowd of hunters at the Hailey Community Campus on Saturday to push for wolf hunting in Idaho and the rest of the northern Rockies. Photo by Willy Cook

Anger over conservationists' efforts to block the removal of federal protections for wolves boiled over Saturday night during a meeting of hunters and anti-wolf activists in Hailey.

Setting the tone for the night was outspoken anti-wolf activist Ron Gillett of Stanley, director of the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition. Gillett predicted that a lawsuit by conservation groups will derail the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's move to delist wolves from the federal Endangered Species Act.

"The wolf lovers will not allow it to happen," he said. "They are never going to be delisted. They are never going to be hunted."

Sponsored by the Deer Hunters of Idaho, a regional hunting organization working to maximize deer populations in the state, the meeting at the Hailey Community Campus drew more than a 100 people from the Wood River Valley and surrounding states of Montana and Wyoming. Except for a few wolf supporters, most in the crowd were hunters upset by attempts to block the handover of wolf management to states.

Bumper stickers on pickup trucks outside the event proclaiming messages such as "I Like My Canadian Wolf Fried" and "Wolves: Government Sponsored Terrorists" were an indication of the crowd's hostility towards the predators. Many in the crowd believe Idaho is on the verge of losing its game herds to wolves.

Several hunters made it clear they don't believe reports from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game that suggest, except in a few specific cases across the state, that elk populations are at or just a bit below normal. Rather, they claim conservationists and state wildlife officials are complicit in a cover-up about declining game herds.

"We're going to run out of game in seven to eight years," said Tony Mayer, co-founder of the Twin Falls-based group Save Our Elk, which calls for aggressive wolf management.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's delisting rule for the region's gray wolves was published in the Federal Register on April 1. The move put in motion a 30-day countdown to the removal of wolves from the ESA.

If all goes as planned, wolves will lose their protected status in all of Idaho and Montana and in portions of eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and northern Utah. Because federal officials have deemed Wyoming's wolf management plan inadequate, the delisting will not extend to wolves in that state.

Distrust of state and federal wildlife biologists and their intentions for wolves and the preservation of big game herds in the region was a theme voiced throughout the evening. Speakers claimed that state wildlife managers are in bed with the same conservation groups that are trying to keep them from taking over management from the federal government.

"The Idaho Fish and Game has people in there that are wolf lovers," Gillett said.

He joined others in calling for an unspecified type of "civil disobedience" should the delisting not proceed as planned. Legislation that anti-wolf activists are attempting to have introduced into the Idaho Legislature would protect anyone accused of taking part in the "grassroots uprising," he added without elaborating.

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State wildlife managers were invited to the meeting by the organizers. Sitting near the front of the large auditorium as Gillett and others berated the agency were Cal Groen, director of Fish and Game, and Jerome Hansen, the department's Magic Valley regional supervisor. Later in the meeting, Groen tried to convince the irate crowd that Fish and Game's goal is to manage wolves in concert with big game herds just like any other predator species in Idaho, including black bears and cougars.

It's a message the department has voiced over and over in recent years, only to be met with suspicion from both sides of the emotional issue, anti-wolf activists and conservationists alike.

Dave Burke, who lives in eastern Idaho and is a hunting and fishing outfitter both close to home and in Canada and Alaska, angrily denounced the belief that wolves live in balance with game herds. Rather, Burke claimed that wolves are creating "death zones" in Idaho's backcountry devoid of big game.

"These things are huge—they're monsters," he said. "They eat the fetus. It's like candy for them. They don't kill to eat, they kill for fun."

Though present for the meeting, the small contingent of conservationists kept quiet throughout the night. After being pointed to and mentioned repeatedly by Gillett, local pro-wolf activist Lynne Stone left without speaking about midway through the night. Conservationists' attempts to film the meeting were quickly rebuffed by organizers.

Still, not everyone in the crowd was predicting as dire a scenario as speakers like Gillett. Spending much of his speech discussing why he believes a wolf hunt is needed was Matt Douthit of Bellevue, president of Deer Hunters of Idaho.

"Management of these wolves is long overdue," he said.

Douthit, who has been filming the valley's Phantom Hill wolf pack hunting elk near Sun Valley and Greenhorn Gulch, claimed that Fish and Game's efforts to haze the pack away from homes is only causing them to hunt at night.

"I'm thinking hazing is not the best management tool for these wolves," he said.

Hunters also allege that many more wolves live in the valley than Fish and Game admits. Bellevue's Billy Ward, another meeting organizer, said signs of wolves are visible up and down the valley.

"We have five to six wolf packs," he said.

Jason Kauffman: jkauffman@mtexpress.com




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