Central Idaho elk, pride of the state

A small part of a herd of 300 or so elk on Ayers Meadow in the Frank Church Wilderness in July, Central Idaho. This has always been great elk country, but several years ago cattle grazing in the drainage was bought out, so now these public lands have more elk than ever. Idaho –mule and white-tailed deer, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, lynx, wolverine, pronghorn antetope, wolves, cougar , bobcats, black and grizzly bears, and a state where the public owns more than 60% of the land.

Don’t let the privatizers, the political dividers, or the industrial interests ever take it away from you.

Column: Due West by Dan Whipple. The Wolf’s At the Door

This is a good column (published in New West). It doesn’t give any side of the issue a free pass, and is one of the first I have seen that looks carefully at Governor Freudenthal’s contradictory statements about wolves and big game.

Freudenthal’s fundamental view of wolves: “This raises the interesting question of whether any packs outside Yellowstone in Wyoming are even necessary.” In other words, “we don’t want ‘em.”  Here it is, the classic view of part of Wyoming that Yellowstone should be, as I interpret it, a “prison for wild country.”

The Wolf’s at the Door. New West. By Dan Whipple.

Feds move forward on delisting Idaho wolves (story from Wood River Valley newspaper)

This is from the Idaho Mountain Express. Hunting season specifics will not be nailed down for several months. By Steve Benson.

There is also a LTE by Lynne Stone in this issue of the Mountain Express. “Get Wolf Facts Straight.”

Idaho Legislators may tinker with elk ranching laws

Legislators may tinker with elk ranching laws. By Roger Phillips.

I was talking with a leader in a major sportsman organization the other night. He said the Idaho legislature was likely to do nothing of importance to restore fair chase hunting in Idaho, and he was talking ballot initiative to solve the problem the way sportsmen did in Montana about 6 years ago.