Idaho “wolf viewing area” language is a menace to hunters and wildlife watchers.

You might say, “how’s that? I know it is awful language and a fraud, but how is it dangerous to wildlife watching and hunting in general?

It is dangerous because it arguably transfers ownership of the state’s wildlife to outfitters. Let me write that again, it implicitly transfers ownership of Idaho wildlife from the state of Idaho to private outfitters.

Wuerthner: Idaho’s wolf plan panders to hunters and ranchers

George Wuerthner writes his usual kind of essay — sustained argument based on, logic, and data from scientific papers — the kind of material politicians usually ignore 😦

Idaho’s wolf plan panders to hunters and ranchers. George Wuerthner. New West.

One thing Wuerthner doesn’t quite get right is that the plan is not a pander to hunters. It is a pander to outfitters, a subclass of hunters, whose interests are increasingly at odds with the average Idaho hunter. I will write more about this today. . . . here it is, see: Idaho “wolf viewing area” language is a menace to hunters and wildlife watchers.

Utah’s “bear problem” won’t be solved by hunting

That dead boy surely seemed to scare a lot of Utahans, and not surprisingly the quota on bears is to be increased by 20% — good news for bear hunters in short run, but it will do little or nothing to reduce “problem bears” because the wrong bears will be killed.

Editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune.