Idaho Fish and Game only manages to collar 4 wolves in the Frank Church

Goal was 12 wolves-

After the lawsuit and all the expense and danger of darting wolves from the air to collar them in the rugged Frank Church Wilderness, the results are in.  After risk to life and limb, instead of 12 wolves the department got only 4 collared. This is apparently the same number of collared wolves as were shot in the recent and still on-going Idaho wolf hunt (although the Frank Church area had its wolf quota met and has been closed to hunting for the season).

If I was an employee of the department I would be outraged that the state’s politicians in the legislature, Fish and Game Commission and department had me risk my life for this kind of  bullshit.

I had heard most of this a couple days ago, but didn’t know the info had been released. Today Rocky Barker put the info on his blog, “It took biologists 12 helicopter landings to collar four wolves in wilderness.” Letters from the West.  By Rocky Barker.

Open range laws unfair to rural residents, AZ lawmaker says

Open range laws said to put interests of ranchers above the property rights and safety of other rural residents-

Open range laws were made for another era. Increasingly people are seeing these laws as another giveaway of their safety and rights to that small group who want to carelessly run cattle over public and private property.

System unfair to rural residents, lawmaker says. State politics: Open range law discussed. Sierra Vista Herald.

Marvel pays $250 ticket to BLM. Public grazing groups try to make it into a scandal

This has been very minor news, but the Idaho Cattle Association and Farm Bureau have been trying to pump it into a story-

They haven’t had much success, and today in the Idaho State Journal, columnist Michael H. O’Donnell slapped the livestock interests again. Best of all he relates it to the Johnson County War, which still reflects their basic attitude.

Gem State ‘Heaven’s Gate’. By Michael H. O’Donnell. Idaho State Journal.