A new proposal for wolf management in Idaho calls for a more aggressive approach for dealing with wolves, including the use of lethal gas to kill pups in dens when an entire pack must be removed.
There are three alternatives to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services' preferred plan, which was drafted in early August, varying in scale from no federal wolf management or only non-lethal wolf management to retaining the state's current management plan.
The preferred plan is the most aggressive of the alternatives, similar to the management techniques Wildlife Services was already using to manage wolves in the state, with new provisions for pup removal and sterilization.
The gassing would occur in cases in which the pups would be orphaned otherwise. For example, if a pack needed to be removed because it was continually preying on livestock, pack removal would include any denned pups.
Rather than trying to remove the pups from the den, Wildlife Services officers would use gas cartridges to kill the animals.
"The most practical, humane approach to this infrequent scenario would be to employ the use of an EPA-registered den fumigant to euthanize the pups in the den," the report states.
"I can't imagine when that method would ever be used," said Ed Mitchell, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
Infrequent or not, this method of pack removal has been vigorously opposed by wolf advocates.
"We are appalled," said Suzanne Stone, spokeswoman for national conservation group Defenders of Wildlife. "This is a very aggressive use of lethal control."
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The report was drafted while a court decision to relist Northern Rocky Mountain wolves under the Endangered Species Act was still pending.
Though Idaho wolves are now protected, federal wolf management is not prohibited by the Endangered Species Act. Under the act, Wildlife Services has the right to remove any wolves in nonessential populations that are threatening livestock and ungulate populations such as deer and elk. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, that includes all wolves south of Interstate 90, in the Idaho panhandle.
The sterilization of alpha pairs of wolves is also proposed under the service's preferred plan. This method involves killing an entire pack of wolves with the exception of the breeding pair, which would be captured and sterilized. The goal, according to the report, is to halt population growth while allowing the pair to defend their territory against larger wolf packs that are more likely to successfully prey on livestock.
According to the report, this method would be "infrequent" and would only be used on packs that have been "implicated in chronic depredations on livestock" or on wolves that threaten elk or deer populations.
The effectiveness of the method, which relies on the ability of two wolves to successfully defend an independent territory against potentially larger packs, is described as needing further study.
Sterilization to control population growth is prohibited under the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's Policy for Avian and Mammalian Predation Management. To use this method, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission would have to pass a rule change granting an exception for gray wolves.
Carol Bannerman, spokeswoman for Wildlife Services, declined to comment on the proposed plan for wolf management or the reasons for including these new methods.
According to Bannerman, Wildlife Services will consider feedback received during a month-long public comment period that ended yesterday in its decision. If Wildlife Services decides to approve its own preferred plan, it will go into effect barring litigation from conservation groups or objection from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Katherine Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com
A man who favors wolf management lets his feelings be known during a wolf-related event in Ketchum last year. Photo by Mountain Express
