Wyoming state wolf rules go to public

State wolf rules go to public. By CHRIS MERRILL. Casper Star-Tribune environment reporter.

Of course Wyoming’s wolf plan is terrible and will result in the elimination of most packs except those inside Yellowstone Park. This would only happen under the Bush Administration.

They will be shooting wolves because the wolves will come to their disease-spreading elk feedgrounds and chase the elk. The result will be packs that spend most of their time inside Grand Teton and maybe even Yellowstone being wiped out so that Wyoming can keep pitching hay to their semi-domesticated elk.

Irony is the wolves are probably the only thing in Wyoming actively severing to deter the spread of chronic wasting disease between ungulates.

The plan also has an incredibly high subsidy to livestock producers who lose livestock to wolves — payment of many times the value of the dead calf, lamb, foal, etc. This creates an incentive for the livestock producer to turn in falsified reports. This has already happened with their extra generous grizzly bear livestock compensation subsidy. This is a twist that even Idaho’s bad plan does not take.

Political Animals (Yes, Animals)

Some animals engage in behavior that seems political, or at least has a similar effect among their own as human politics.

Political Animals (Yes, Animals). By Natatie Angier. New York Times.

Battle over Bighorn, part II

Battle over Bighorn: Opposing views on disease and economics. This is part II. By Sven Berg. South Idaho Press

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I posted part I earlier. Here is it again. Battle over Bighorn, part I.

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There is more on this on the Western Watersheds Project blog. “Dear Governor” – Bighorn, Mule deer opportunity, & domestic sheep in southern Idaho.

The blog shows the influence trail with actual documents.

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Update: Idaho bighorn plan could mean more wild sheep would be killed. Idaho Statesman. By Keith Ridler. Bighorn sheep in Idaho have dropped from 6500 in 1990 to about 3500 today. You wouldn’t know it to hear the domestic sheep lobby moan and whine. Now the Idaho Bighorn/Domestic Sheep Working Group is nearing their recommendation to the governor. Not surprisingly, the “solution” will be to restrict the bighorn from reoccupying their native range and to kill bighorn that venture outwards from some boxed-in areas where they will be allowed to persist if they can.

The article says, “There are some 260,000 domestic sheep in Idaho, and they brought in more than $17 million to the state in 2006, according to the state Agriculture Department.” It doesn’t say how much the bighorn bring in, although a ram with a full curl has had tags sold at auction at $75.000.

$17-million dollars is a piss-poor return for an industry that monopolizes millions or acres of land in Idaho, much of it public land that could have abundant wildlife instead.

In Yellowstone, drought’s effects are both startling and subtle

In Yellowstone, drought’s effects startling, subtle. By Mike Stark.

Man’s poisoning prompts debate on predator poison ban

Here is more on the dangers of poisons set out for coyotes (and soon wolves?).

“Curious, Slaugh touched the stake, and it exploded, spewing a cloud of sodium cyanide in his face and chest. Slaugh, 65, of Vernal, Utah, said he suffers long-term health effects from the 2003 spraying. He has difficulty breathing, vomits almost daily and can no longer work driving heavy equipment because he is too weak.”

Here is the AP story. Man’s Poisoning Prompts Debate on Predator Poison Ban.

Although the EPA is considering a ban on sodium cyanide and 1080 (sodium monofluroacetate), you might want to write to your member of Congress and ask him or her support a legislative ban. Note that the EPA’s action, which is hardly four sure, is a weaker administrative ban.

For example, Democrat John Salazar of Colorado is weighing in in favor of the poisons. Do Colorado residents know that? It is in the story above.