Action Alerts

The Idaho Fish & Game Commission is collecting public comments on their most recent proposal to kill between 40-50 wolves and maintain a minimum population of 20-30 wolves over the next 5 years in the state's Lolo hunting zone. Despite the wolves being recently re-listed on the endangered species list, Fish & Game officials are arguing that the state should still be permitted to lower wolf populations through the (10j) experimental non-essential guidelines. The US Fish & Wildlife Service may or may not grant the state permission.

As predators, wolves play a crucial role in wildland ecosystems by regulating ungulate populations, providing carrion for other species, and increasing biodiversity. Idaho Fish & Game officials however do not acknowledge this positive ecological footprint and instead claim that wolves are destroying ungulate herds. The truth of the matter is that ungulate populations in the Upper Clearwater Basin were in decline before wolf re-introduction and disease, harsh winters, fire suppression, forest succession, habitat fragmentation, and liberal hunting quotas are to blame.

The Idaho Fish & Game Department has reported that twenty-three of twenty-nine elk management units are currently at or above agency objectives. It has also been documented that elk populations in general across the Northern Rockies have increased, not decreased, since the re-introduction of wolves across the region. The same can be said for the elk hunter success rate across the region.

Wolves need to be permitted to exert their ecological footprint on the landscape. Furthermore, predator-prey relationships must be allowed to develop and take their course, as they always have for thousands of years. Allowing wolves to be wolves strengthens species resiliency, restores ecosystem processes, and brings a spirit of wildness to public lands. The Lolo wolf hunt should not be permitted because the species is not biologically recovered and populations across the Northern Rockies are isolated, as documented in the authoritative BioScience December 2009/Vol. 59 No.11 issue.

You can email your comment to the Idaho Fish & Game Department at jon.rachael@idfg.idaho.gov with "Comment" in the Subject line. Comments are due by Monday August 30th.