Idaho's first state-authorized wolf hunt is set to begin just two weeks from now.
In Idaho Falls on Monday, the seven-member Idaho Fish and Game Commission set wolf harvest levels for the state's pending gray wolf hunt. Statewide—from the mountains of eastern Idaho on the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park to the dense forests of the state's panhandle—Fish and Game will allow 220 wolves to be shot before they'll step in and close the inaugural hunt.
According to the commissioners, the hunt is needed to help Idaho's elk and deer herds, which they say are declining largely because of wolf predation.
"Now it's time to do the right thing for Idaho's ungulate herds," commission Chairman Wayne Wright said.
The length of the hunt as well as the numbers of wolves available for harvest will vary from region to region. The longest season will take place in the Sawtooth and Lolo wolf zones, the latter located in north-central Idaho. In both spots, the seven-month hunt will begin Sept. 1 and end March 31.
The Sawtooth wolf zone stretches from Boise across the Boise, Sawtooth and White Cloud mountains. The state will allow 55 wolves to be shot in that zone.
Fish and Game officials claim reducing wolf numbers in the two areas will benefit elk herds, which have traditionally been very popular for in-state and out-of-state hunters.
Wolves in the Wood River Valley—including the Phantom Hill pack—will be hunted during a shorter season stretching from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. The valley falls into Idaho's Southern Mountains wolf zone, which extends all the way east across the Pioneer, White Knob, Lost River, Lemhi and Beaverhead mountain ranges to the Montana border. The state will allow only 10 wolves to be shot in that zone.
Wolf tags will go on sale Monday, Aug. 24, at 10 a.m. A resident tag will cost $11.75, and a nonresident tag $186. Successful wolf hunters will have 24 hours to report a kill to Fish and Game.
This week's decision by the commission was in distinct contrast to hunt numbers set in 2008 before conservation groups successfully convinced a federal judge to step in and stop the hunt. At a May 2008 meeting in Jerome, the commissioners had set the state's annual wolf mortality limit at 428 wolves spread across Idaho. The deaths would have included all types of wolf mortality, including harvest by hunters and state-authorized control actions in response to wolf depredation on livestock.
Last summer, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula ordered the federal government to place wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming back on the federal Endangered Species List.
In a 4-3 vote Monday, the commissioners opted for the middle of three options for wolf quotas put forth for consideration. Three commissioners expressed support for the highest proposed quota of 430 wolves.
Fish and Game estimates that there would be 1,020 wolves in the state by the end of the year without a hunt.
The commissioners spent much of their time debating how a higher harvest limit might play into attempts by conservationists to derail this year's delisting and the coming Idaho and Montana hunts.
On June, 13 conservation groups, including Defenders of Wildlife, filed suit to overturn the newest northern Rockies wolf-delisting rule. The groups have not announced whether they'll seek an injunction from Molloy to stop the coming hunt as they did last year.
Gary Power, Fish and Game commissioner for Idaho's Salmon Region, warned his fellow commissioners of the consequences of increasing the state's harvest limit. Power said raising the number could leave the state vulnerable to losing its wolf management privileges again.
"We've gone through this once. We don't want to go through this again," he said.
But others, including Commissioner Cameron Wheeler of Ririe, were notably upset by the decision to go easy in the first year. Wheeler described the four commissioners' decision to approve the lower number because of the lawsuit as "junk political science."
"This is people trying to read a judge's mind," he said.
Unlike last year, Wyoming is absent from this year's delisting. Molloy also tied his 2008 decision ordering wolves to be relisted to Wyoming's classification of wolves as predators across most of the state, except in the northwest corner where they're classified as trophy game animals. Under the predator classification, hunters were allowed to shoot wolves on sight at any time of the year across more than three-quarters of the state.
The decisions by Idaho and Montana officials to take a more cautious approach to setting wolf-hunting levels in the first year would seem to potentially undercut the arguments of conservation groups. In Montana, wildlife officials set the state's 2009 harvest levels at just 75 wolves, out of an estimated 491 wolves statewide.
But Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said Tuesday that the hunt numbers set by the commissioners are just the beginning. She noted that the commissioners said the long-term goal is to reduce the state's wolf population to 518 animals.
Stone said that number would constitute an "unsustainable" Idaho wolf population incapable of interbreeding with wolves from Montana and Wyoming. She noted that Idaho wolves will still face other threats, including being hunted by federal Wildlife Service agents responding to livestock depredation.
Jason Kauffman: jkauffman@mtexpress.com
Wolves living in the Wood River Valley will be hunted from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 under a plan approved by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission on Monday.
