Job opening for working on wolf issues in Idaho

Qualifications: Degree in biology, natural resources, wildlife management, public policy, environmental studies, education or related field and at least two years experience working on wildlife conservation issues; excellent conflict management skills; strong writing, editing and communication skills, including familiarity working with media; capable of extended hiking and camping, and maintaining personal safety while in the field; general knowledge of federal and state agencies, laws and policies concerning wildlife management and predator control programs; comfortable with public
speaking; experience with cattle and sheep operations and grazing management desired; independent regional travel required during field season and as needed.

This position will be based in the Boise, Idaho field office, reporting to the Northern Rockies Representative in Boise. For omplete position description, go to: www.defenders.org/employ.html

Please reference Northern Rockies Associate and send resume, cover letter and salary history to HR@Defenders.org. Fax: 541-552-9652
Or mail to:
Defenders of Wildlife
258 A Street, Suite 16,
Ashland, OR 97520

Amaroq Weiss & Laura Jones
Co-moderators, PW-WIN
Defenders of Wildlife

More than 100 domestic elk escape in Idaho near Yellowstone

People have been fearing this for a long time. Hopefully the domestic elk have no disease.

The politics of the whole is really disgusting, but perhaps the outcome will be to put strong controls on these private elk “hunting” reserves, and maybe like the good folks in Montana did, shut them down. They are an affront to real hunters, and they are proliferating in Idaho, giving us a bad name.

So this guy who owned the elk farm, Rex Rummell, continually defied Idaho’s Dept of Agriculture who wanted to inspect his elk for disease, including the dread chronic wasting disease. He defied them and ran to his buddies in the state legislature to get his past fines rescinded. After he got what he wanted, it looks like he continued to defy the law, and he didn’t even report the escape of the elk.

These domestic elk are supposed to have tags to readily identify them, but, of course, they don’t. Perhaps hunters will kill all of them in the upcoming season because they are likely to be unwary elk.

Read the AP article.

WY brucellosis elk test and slaughter failure, may lead to more not less brucellosis

A high proportion of Wyoming elk that reside on state run elk feedlots in the winter (or the National Elk Refuge near Jackson) are infected with or exposed to brucellosis. Elk that “winter out” have far lower infection rates, but WY Game and Fish, under pressure from ag interests, wants to keep those feedlots. So last winter they began a “test-and-slaughter” experiment near Pinedale to try to reduce the disease on the feedlots.

It failed, as many had predicted. The elk were killed for nothing.
Wyoming feedlot elk are center of brucellosis in the Greater Yellowstone. It’s not YNP bison. Both Montana and Wyoming have there own separate mythologies (stories or narratives) about elk, bison, and brucellosis.

While Montana’s bison slaughter is irritating, the head-in-the-sand stance of Wyoming ag and Game and Fish is frightening because they leave an open door to chronic wasting disease (“mad elk” disease) with their feedlots.

Read about test-and-slaughter in the Jackson Hole News and Guide. Article

Unhealthy smoke from fires covers much of Montana.

Read about it in the Billings Gazette. It’s especially bad near Yellowstone. Article

Foul air due to forest and range fire smoke has also canceled athletic events many miles to the southwest in Boise, Idaho. Article.

Yellowstone bison herd down 1000 from last year.

Montana Department of Livestock and Yellowstone Park, who has been dragged into bison killing by the Bush Administration, sent more than a thousand to slaughter last winter. The controversial Montana bison hunt killed 45. There was winter mortality and minor predation by Yellowstone wolves.

This year the hunt will have 140 tags. A lot of people, including some hunters, are disappointed because Montana will continue to rely on Park bison. It won’t allow the bison outside the Park to establish a free roaming herd near West Yellowstone or in the upper Gallatin River which could support the hunt.

I expect we will soon be hearing the same tired rhetoric from Montana DOL about brucellosis and bison.

The Bozeman Chronicle has an article on the matter. Article