Wolf Control Action Planned in Lolo Zone

Idaho Fish and Game has authorized four backcountry outfitters to help reduce wolf numbers in parts of the Lolo wolf management zone.

Outfitters and their licensed guides already in the backcountry on spring black bear hunts will work with Fish and Game in a predator control action to reduce wolf numbers.

The four outfitters are authorized to kill up to five wolves each in their operating area by the end of the spring bear season June 30. The agency control action is not open to hunters.

The effort is in response to concerns that wolf numbers are preventing recovery of elk herds in the Lolo zone from a long decline. Fish and Game research has shown that predators have kept the Lolo herds in a downward trend. Fish and Game will evaluate the effectiveness of the control action as part of its ongoing Lolo elk study.

The action is in accordance with Fish and Game’s wolf management plan and the predator management plan for the Lolo zone, which includes black bears, mountain lions and wolves.

Idaho Game and Fish

Tony, Thanks for the update.

Steve

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Lefforge:
Idaho Game and Fish

Tony, Thanks for the update.

Steve

Thank you Tony for keeping these things in front of us. I appreciate it.

Montana has their wolf proposals out for comment. They are hoping to get a harvest by hunters of 230 and independant of the Fed and State control operations. Perhaps too little too late. In the west and south our numbers are WAY down.

Thanks for posting.

that's our college graduates at work. Pay somebody to harvest them in lieu of selling more tags...

Rich

it's why I keep a shovel in the bed of my pickup

Twenty wolves ain't much of a control plan.

Two years back Palin cooked up a secret plan for our GMU and they got 88 wolves in 3 days with a helicopter before the "I wanna kiss the wolves folks" got an injunction and stopped it.

This year they had a concerted effort in our GMU but the snow didn't work out and then they shot a collared wolf that had strayed off Yukon Charlie Park onto state land and the fed ranger got worked up; so they stopped the hunt; (they weren't going to do very well anyway without fresh snow.

They have more and more GMU's needing wolf control every year and now we have people in power who don't care what the lower 48 wolf luvers think. The biggest obstacle to wolf control programs.

If they brought bounties back, people would snare alot more. I know one guy who got forty some wolves last winter. Ya know, you spend all kinds of money on 7 dollar/gallon snowmachine gas setting snares; probably the biggest detractor to chasing old wolf.

My boy had a wolf come into our bait barrel a few days back. I figured I'd wait a couple days and go back with the fox pro. Neighbor saw them wolves following a moose right before snow was gone. They might have a den back there. We keep seeing more wolves closer to the house every year. They use to stay across the Yukon & twenty miles downriver.

You guys better get a hold on them down there. They have about cleaned the moose outta many of our local watersheds that use to be good spots to kill a bull.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Pay somebody to harvest them in lieu of selling more tags...

I must have missed that part.

Wolves migrating into Washington State from Idaho, Oregon and Canada has promted the State to come up with a draft Comprehensive Wolf Management Plan. The plan as drafted is at best poor quality paper for the outhouse. I agree that 20 wolves out of the Lolo are not much, but is better than nothing for the moment. Likewise I agree it is stupid for the state not to sell tags, especially in revenue hungry state governments.
Unfortuneately here in Washington, there are three confirmed packs (aka breeding pair). The Selkirk and Blue Mountain elk herds don't stand a chance to survive wolf predation.
At least the folks in Idaho and Montana don't have Seattle and the corresponding supermajority of treehugging greenies.

quote:

Originally posted by Tim Vining:
Wolves migrating into Washington State from Idaho, Oregon and Canada has promted the State to come up with a draft Comprehensive Wolf Management Plan. The plan as drafted is at best poor quality paper for the outhouse. I agree that 20 wolves out of the Lolo are not much, but is better than nothing for the moment. Likewise I agree it is stupid for the state not to sell tags, especially in revenue hungry state governments.
Unfortuneately here in Washington, there are three confirmed packs (aka breeding pair). The Selkirk and Blue Mountain elk herds don't stand a chance to survive wolf predation.
At least the folks in Idaho and Montana don't have Seattle and the corresponding supermajority of treehugging greenies.

Yeah you're right about that all right.