BlogNetNews ranks us most influential political blog in Idaho this week

We are pleased, especially that a blog about wildife and conservation news could be number one.

Go to http://www.blognetnews.com/idaho/dashboard.php and click on “Weekly Influence Index.”

2008 Interagency Grizzly Bear Report for Yellowstone has been published

Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Investigations 2008. PDF file. Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team.

The report is not just Yellowstone National Park, but for most of the much larger Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Auction saboteur gets letter demanding $81K

DeChristopher gets a confusing letter from the BLM demanding he pay $81,000-

Auction saboteur gets letter demanding $81K.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office and BLM deny responsibility. By Patty Henet.  The Salt Lake Tribune.

Why did he get this letter? Who wrote it.? It seems odd.

Idaho, Cody wolves ‘pair’

Will genes from Idaho and the Yellowstone area finally begin to mix?

Former Idaho wolf B271M has been wandering around the Yellowstone area for over two years now. He had little success finding a mate in the Park, but has paired with a radio-collared female in Sunlight Basin to Yellowstone Park’s east.

So far there has been no genetic evidence that wolves from Idaho or NW Montana have produced offspring with the wolves that were reintroduced to Wyoming.

The Idaho wolf orginally came from a pack on the western edge of the Sawtooth Mountains of south central Idaho.

Story: Idaho, Cody wolves ‘pair’. By Angus M. Thuermer Jr. Jackson Hole Daily.

Sheepman/elk farmer Siddoway’s bill to kill bighorn in domestic sheep areas advances

Bill passes key State Senate committee 7-2-

The bighorn is in big trouble in Idaho with the population dropping from 6,500 in 1990 to about 3,500 today. One full curl bighorn ram can be worth as much as an entire band of sheep.

Bill would prohibit bighorns in sheep grazing areas. AP

In an April 4 article in the Lewiston Tribune (subscription only)reporters Bill Spence And Eric Barker wrote that Hells Canyon on the Idaho/Oregon/Washington border once had about 10,000 bighorn, but it has dwindled to just 875 today.

Almost all biologists believe that the presence of domestic sheep near bighorn results in lethal pneumonia for the bighorn. A number of courts cases in Idaho federal courts the last several years favoring bighorn has caused a furious reaction among sheep operators.

I find it amazing that wolves get so much attention when it is bighorn in danger, not elk, although elk farms are a likely danger to elk due to the advancing front of chronic wasting disease and other pathogens.
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Note that yesterday, Siddoway abstained from voting on the bill.