The Idaho Department of Fish and Game announced Monday that it is ending an effort by a hired trapper to kill wolves in the Middle Fork Salmon area of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.
Since the effort began in mid-December, the trapper killed nine wolves, eight after being caught in traps and one by hunting. The department reported that no wolves have been killed in the past two weeks.
Department spokesman Mike Keckler said the department decided it had about reached its goal of eliminating two packs, given that the average size of a wolf pack in Idaho is five animals. He said four packs remain in the area.
“He had been pretty effective early on, but it had been two weeks since he had taken any wolves, so we decided there was no reason to keep him in the area any longer,” he said.
Keckler said he had not heard anything about the decision being affected by a lawsuit filed by three conservation organizations seeking an injunction against the trapping program.
The department stated that a few days will be required for the trapper to collect his traps and to leave the area.
The wolf-killing program was part of a larger strategy to help elk recovery in the backcountry.
According to the department, elk cows and calves in the area have been vulnerable to predation, and the Middle Fork herd has declined significantly in recent years—down 43 percent since 2002. The number of elk calves surviving is too low to replace the adults dying each year, and the herd is continuing to decline, the department stated.
“We remain committed to working with Idahoans to ensure that both wolves and healthy elk populations remain part of the wilderness,” Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore said. “This action was an important step toward achieving our goal of stabilizing the Middle Fork elk population.”
The department said that in early February, it will post on its website a predation management plan that outlines future efforts being considered to restore the Middle Fork elk population.
A federal judge denied the conservation groups’ motion seeking an injunction on Jan. 17, but they appealed the ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That action was awaiting a decision when the department made its announcement Monday.
“This is bittersweet news,” said Ken Cole, National Environmental Policy Act coordinator at the Boise office of Western Watersheds Project, which is one of the plaintiffs. “I am happy that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has relented, but it is unfortunate that so many wolves have been taken in this senseless plan to manhandle wildlife in an area that Congress recognized as a wilderness, ‘where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man.’”
Legislature to consider wolf-killing bill
A bill to create a Wolf Depredation Control Board, which would distribute state funds to kill wolves, has begun to work its way through the Legislature.
On Monday, the House Resources and Conservation Committee voted 9-8 to allow the bill to be printed.
The idea was proposed by Gov. Butch Otter in his State of the State address on Jan. 6. He has included $2 million in his proposed fiscal 2015 budget to start the fund. The bill, HB 423, states that the fund would consist of annual payments of $110,000 collected from the livestock industry and $110,000 allocated from the fish and game fund.
Both District 26 legislators—Donna Pence, D-Gooding, and Steven Miller, R-Fairfield—serve on the Resources and Conservation Committee, and both voted to approve printing of the bill.
Pence said that having seen Democrats’ bills buried in Republican-controlled committees, she believes all bills should have the chance to be heard. She said she did not know how she will vote on the bill when it is heard in the committee.
Miller said he will probably support it.
“I didn’t see any reasons in our discussion that would make me oppose it,” he said.
However, he said he wants proponents to set a concrete target number for the desired wolf population in Idaho.
According to The Associated Press, two Republican legislators supporting the bill told the committee that their goal is to reduce Idaho’s wolf population by more than 500 animals, to 150 wolves in 15 packs. Idaho has about 680 wolves, according to a Department of Fish and Game estimate in 2012.
In its rule delisting wolves in Idaho and Montana in 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated that it would consider putting wolves back on the endangered species list if the population in Idaho ever drops below 100 and 10 breeding pairs, or below 150 animals and 15 breeding pairs for three years.
“This is how to end state management, by adopting this sort of misguided plan,” said John Reuter, executive director of Conservation Voters for Idaho.
The Associated Press reported that opposition to the bill came from legislators who objected to its price tag and to the establishment of another bureaucracy. Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale and a proponent of reducing wolf numbers, urged that the wolf-killing effort should be conducted by the existing board of directors overseeing the state’s animal damage control districts.
