The Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) has released its proposed hunting regulations for wolves in Idaho. As in Montana and Wyoming, Idaho now manages wolf populations through the 2008 Idaho Wolf Population Management Plan, approved in March by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who delisted wolves as a federally endangered species in March 2008. However, 12 national and local grassroots conservation organizations, including Friends of the Clearwater, have filed a suit in Missoula district court to overturn the delisting and transferred management decisions that would impact an estimated 1,500 wolves in the Northern Rockies bioregion. Approximately 800 wolves presently inhabit Idaho backcountry wildlands.
A public hunting season could start this September for female and male wolves, although hunters may not utilize dogs, snares, traps, bait, or electronic calls to attract or pursue them. Consistent with the statewide management plan, game officials have recommended a total, wolf mortality quota of 328 for the 2008 season. This figure is based on a predicted 15 percent average growth rate of a target state wolf population of between 500 and 700 individuals during the first five years after delisting. Once all reported wolf deaths in Idaho from hunting, road kills, state control measures, or natural causes reach these quotas, the statewide season would immediately end.
IDFG has also established 12 wolf management zones that circumscribe various wolf hunt quotas. Zones in the Clearwater River basin and north central Idaho allow the most wolf kills, including up to 50 in the Lolo zone near Montana. (Please see the May 8 Lewiston Tribune article for local zone quotas). Four alternative hunting seasons with varying lengths could also occur under these regulations, ranging from a brief October through December season to a lengthy August through March opener.
The deadline for public comments on Idaho’s wolf hunting rules is May 16. IDFG will submit the final, revised rules and season dates to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission for review on May 21-22. To accept comments on their proposed regulations, IDFG has also scheduled public, open-house meetings this week in all seven Idaho Fish and Game regions throughout the state, as follows.
Clearwater Region: For information, call 208-799-5010. Send comments to Idaho Fish and Game, 3316 16th Street, Lewiston, Idaho 83501, or attend these meetings:
Monday, May 12, 6 p.m., at Fish and Game, 3316 16th Street, Lewiston;
Tuesday, May 13, 6 p.m., at Senior Center, County Road, Grangeville.
Panhandle Region: For information, call 208-769-1414. Send comments to Idaho Fish and Game, 2885 Kathleen Avenue, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83815, or attend these hearings:
Tuesday, May 13, 7 p.m., at Sandpoint Community Center, 204 First Avenue, Sandpoint;
Wednesday, May 14, 7 p.m., at Silver Lake Motel and Convention Center, 6160 N. Sunshine Street, Coeur d’Alene;
Thursday, May 15, 7 p.m., at St. Maries Federal Building, 7th and College Streets, St. Maries.
Please include these points, generated by Defenders of Wildlife and Friends of the Clearwater, in your comments:
* Allowing public wolf hunting could result in the loss of hundreds of wolves, could fragment the Idaho wolf population from wolves in Canada, Montana, and Wyoming, and could significantly impair wolf dispersal from Idaho to unoccupied wolf habitat in Oregon and Washington.
* The proposed hunting quotas are too high in some management zones, especially in the northern part of the state, where wolf predation of weak and diseased wildlife is improving and restoring the health of elk, deer, and other game herds.
* The Idaho wolf hunt rules fail to adequately integrate conservation biology and wolf behavior, would prevent wolves from fulfilling their ecological function in their native habitat, and would undermine the long-term viability of wolf populations within the state.
* The wolf hunting season is too long and would disrupt pack structure, result in high pup and sub-adult mortality, and increase livestock losses and conflicts.
For more information about IDFG’s wolf hunting rules, seasons, and quotas, please reference the Fish and Game website at Idaho Fish and Game Please submit comments on the proposed regulations in person at the regional public meetings, at the IDFG website, or by mail to the regional IDFG offices or to Wolf Hunting Rules, Idaho Fish and Game, P.O. Box 25, Boise, Idaho 83707.
