Howling Over Federal Plan to Expand Wolf Killing

This is from a special section of the New York Times today regarding the new 10j rule. Howling Over Federal Plan to Expand Wolf Killing. By Andrew C. Revkin.

The article’s author gets credit for writing “In a news release, the Fish and Wildlife Service said the states needed more flexibility to allow them to “manage” and “remove” wolves (euphemisms for shooting them) where their predatory skills are too effective.”

I haven’t seen any other msm reporter state the obvious that “management flexibility” means shooting more wolves.

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More. Here is the Natural Resource Defense Council’s statement on the new 10j.

CONTACTS: Craig Noble at 415-875-6100 or Louisa Willcox at 406-222-9561 or (406) 581-3839 (cell)

Conservation Groups Challenge Bush Administration Wolf Killing Plan

“It’s going to be open season on wolves,” says Natural Resources Defense Council

LIVINGSTON, Mont. (January 24, 2008) – Conservation groups say they will file a lawsuit in federal court immediately to block a rule announced today by the Bush administration that will allow the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to kill most of the threatened wolves in the Northern Rockies. The new “10(j)” rule widens a loophole in the Endangered Species Act that permits the killing of hundreds of wolves even though the animals are considered at risk of extinction. State plans to hunt, trap and shoot wolves from airplanes threaten to reverse one of the greatest wildlife recovery stories in U.S. history, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Governor Brian Schweitzer says Montana can’t be allowed to Become Another Wyoming

Oil & Gas Symposium: Montana Cannot Become Another Wyoming. By Hal Herring. New West.

Radio-Collared Gray Wolf from Idaho is Verified In Northeast Oregon

Here is some great news!

Update: Video of the Oregon wolf on YouTube.

Update: Here is the story from a local newspaper. Biologist sees wolf in Wallowas. Baker City Herald. By Jayson Jacoby.

Update: Here is the story in the Oregonian. Idaho wolf spotted in northeast Oregon. The radio-collared female is the first live wolf seen in Oregon since March 1999. Friday, January 25, 2008. By Richard Cockle. The Oregonian Staff

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Original news release Jan. 24, 2008

Contact: ODFW:
Russ Morgan: 541-963-2138
Michelle Dennehy: 503-947-6022
FWS: Phil Carroll: 503-231-6179

A female gray wolf from Idaho’s Timberline Pack has been positively located in Oregon, using radio signals from her tracking collar. The wolf, a two- to three-year-old female identified as B-300F, has been wearing the collar since she was captured northeast of Boise by Idaho biologists in August 2006. She’s now traveling in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest near the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area, between Medical Springs and Wallowa. Biologists have observed evidence of wolves in this area over the past six months.

Aerial searches for signals from wolf tracking collars, specifically those which have been reported as missing from Idaho, helped the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife located the wolf. A signal was picked up January 17, but the location of the animal was not confirmed. A ground search the next day turned up tracks which appeared to be of a wolf.

The new 10j rule is out in final form.

Today the new 10j rule governing the “experimental, non-essential” population of wolves in most of Idaho, all of Wyoming, and most of Montana was released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This is what will govern management of wolves even if delisting is set aside.

From the standpoint of those who want more than a token population of wolves, this rule is bad. It could in a reduction of wolves by more than half from the current number.

Like the delisting, the new 10j rule will be litigated.

Here is the USFWS news release

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service questions and answers about the new 10j

This answer is one I find a most amazing rationalization of letting states kill wolves.

“In the 2005 rule, the Service inadvertently set an unobtainable threshold for allowing states and tribes to resolve conflicts between wolves and ungulate populations. Current information does not indicate that wolf predation alone is likely to be the primary cause of a reduction of any ungulate population in Montana, Idaho or Wyoming. In addition, there are no populations of wild ungulates in these three states where wolves are the sole predator. It is unlikely that wolf predation will impact ungulate population trends substantially unless other contributing factors are in operation, such as habitat quality and quantity, other predators, high harvest by hunters, weather and other factors. However, in combination with any of these other factors, wolf predation can have a substantial impact to some wild ungulate herds with the potential of reducing them below state and tribal herd management objectives.” [boldface is mine]

Confirmed wolf predations in Wyoming decline in 2007

Confirmed wolf predations decline. Wolf Management in Wyoming. By Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!

Confirmed livestock losses to wolves dropped by over 55% from 2006. 55 cattle (mostly calves) and 16 sheep we confirmed lost to wolves. For this 60 wolves were shot, mostly by Wildlife Services.

Of course there were some livestock killed, but not found, but we also have to assume that Wildlife Services did not cheat in counting the confirmed losses. The Wyoming wolf plan calls for paying sheep growers 700% the value of a lost sheep if it is a confirmed wolf kill. The justification is that there are 7 dead sheep for every one found. If this rate of unconfirmed loss was really true, Wyoming sheep operations would probably be the most sloppy on the planet. In fact, sheep are herded much more closely than cattle, and losses of sheep to predators are more likely, rather than less likely to be detected.

These are data then, about which the governor, state legislators and some of media act so hysterical.

North American Wolf Conference to be held April 8-10 at Chico Hot Springs, Montana

CALL FOR PAPERS

20th Annual North American Wolf Conference

April 8-10, 2008

Chico Hot Springs & Resort – Pray, Montana

Papers are now being accepted for the 2008 North American Wolf Conference April 8-10th, 2008 with a field trip on Friday, April 11th, to Yellowstone National Park. The conference is returning to Chico Hot Springs & Resort, in Pray, Montana. For lodging reservations, please visit the website or call 1-800-468-9232.

The conference serves as a bridge bringing together leading wolf biologists, conservationists, livestock owners, depredation specialists, educators and state, tribal and federal wolf managers to share information ranging from ecological and genetic research, nonlethal techniques to reduce livestock conflicts, to economic and environmental effects of wolf restoration. Former presenters include Ed Bangs, Doug Smith, Lu Carbyn, Jamie Rappaport Clark, Bud Fazio, Steven Fritts, William Lynn, L. David Mech, Marco Musiani, Dave Parsons, Paul Paquet, Robert Wayne, Vic Van Ballenberghe, Carita Bergman and other scientists, managers, and leaders in North American wolf conservation.

Please submit a single-spaced abstract (up to 500 words) with your full contact information, affiliations and authors by e-mail to Suzanne Stone at: sstone@defenders.org by February 15, 2008. If possible, please submit a digital picture related to your research or topic to include in the agenda and conference websites.

We can also scan images sent by mail to:

North American Wolf Conference
P.O. Box 773
Boise, Idaho 83701

Conference registration opened on December 1, 2007.

Please visit http://www.defenders.org/wolf/conference/ for registration details.

For more information, please contact Brenda Davis, Rocky Mountain Region Coordinator, Defenders of Wildlife, at bdavis@defenders.org or call (406) 586-3970.