Alan Gregory’s Conservation NewsDoubt GOP will be put scientists in a gulag. They will just be investigated and badgered out of a job.
GOP plans attacks on the EPA and climate scientists. By Neela Banerjee. Los Angeles Times
It seems to me that this will not be a one time event because the passage of this huge equipment through north central Idaho and then Montana will be ongoing for many years.
Missoula demonstrators protest big rigs, fossil fuels at Exxon station. By Gwen Florio. Missoulian
I don’t know if this is a strange result of evolution or due to deliberate breeding, but it is shocking.
Sheep Study Finds an Upside to a Weak Immune System. New York Times.
Everyone knows at least a little bit about Las Vegas. To many visitors, Las Vegas is Nevada. In terms of population this is almost true. The large majority of the state’s population lives in Clark County (Las Vegas) — almost 2-million people live in this small southern Nevada urban area. Reno is the only other major population center.
There is the real Nevada. It’s a land of vast deserts (both hot desert and cold Great Basin desert). Over a hundred mountain ranges bisect the desert basins. Scenery is wonderful, although it is not the classical jagged glacier peaks and deep forest. Population density is very low. Best of all, almost 80% of the state is public land. You don’t have to ask permission to use it.
On the other hand, it is not pristine land. Most of the land is grazed by cattle, although Nevada is regularly held up as an example of the poorest grazing land in America. Much of north central Nevada is being torn apart by vast gold mine pits that spew their poisonous mercury upon the residents of Utah and Idaho. The gold pits are late comers to an earlier era of mining that created towns like Searchlight, Nevada.
Idaho’s Gubernatorial candidate Keith Allred, challenger to “Butch” Otter, recently drew a distinction between wildlife management on public versus private land, standing behind Idaho sportsmen on the bighorn sheep issue :
Candidate’s Comments Cause for Concern – Frank Priestley, Idaho Farm Bureau President
During the October 9th discussion between Allred and members of the Idaho Sportsmen’s Caucus Advisory Council, the subject of bighorn sheep management came up. Following are Allred’s comments verbatim:
“My family a hundred years ago was driving sheep and cattle up to the Sawtooth Valley and running sheep. So I’d like to see a viable sheep industry. But we also have a long enough family history that we remember when there (were) much more substantial bighorn sheep populations in Idaho than there are now. So how do you manage those competing perspectives? Here’s one kind of distinction I would draw: On public lands, to me, wildlife populations have to take priority over individual private interests, really economic interests, and grazing. On private lands then private property owners need to take priority.”
(Emphasis added)
This recognition that wildlife management on public lands ought reflect all Idahoans’ interest, and ought preserve Idaho’s wildlife heritage is threatening to some.
To most, it’s just plain common sense.
UPDATE: Allred Licks the Boot 10/29/10 : Statement on Bighorn and Domestic Sheep – Keith Allred, Ag Weekly
From Keith Allred – I’m sorry to have inappropriately applied the distinction between public and private land to bighorn and domestic sheep questions in recent comments I made to the Sportsman’s Caucus. I’d like to clarify my points and suggest a solution.
[More…]
Advocates for the West‘s Laurie Rule (best known for her esteemed success in the Payette National Forest on behalf of bighorn sheep) has filed another brief on behalf of Western Watersheds Project & The Wolf Recovery Foundation’s lawsuit against Wildlife Services’ wolf control activities in Idaho (complaint & associated filings).
This lawsuit asks the court to stop Wildlife Services from engaging in wolf “control” efforts until the agency fully analyzes its impact to Idaho wolves and a host of other environmental values that it affects.
This brief makes three basic arguments with respect to WWP & The Wolf Recovery Foundation’s claim that Wildlife Services’ wolf control program should be shut down in Idaho for failure to comply with NEPA and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) Act:
- Wildlife Services has never adequately analyzed a range of alternatives to its existing wolf control activities and their effects, in violation of NEPA
- Wildlife Services unlawfully relies on “Categorical Exclusions” (from NEPA) for its Wolf Control Actions
- Wildlife Services failed to consider whether its wolf control actions within or near the SNRA cause “substantial impairment” of SNRA values, including wildlife
Thanks Laurie !!
This seems to be the current argument of Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. They used to have other explanations. More properly this new logic would be one hypothesis (one of a number of possible explanations*). They want the federal government to give authority to kill 12 wolves. If granted, would this be a good test of the hypothesis?
Story on the issue: Bitterroot: Where have all the elk gone? by Alex Sakariassen. Missoula Independent
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*Of course, there are the ideologically driven. They don’t need a test. Wolves did it. They always do.
Island Park, Idaho boasts the longest main street in America. This simply means it is a small population, incorporated community hugging a federal highway for a long way through wildlife rich forest. A lot of folks on this blog are familiar with Island Park.
You don’t really appear to be in town in most of the drive. There’s just scattered sprawl amidst the trees, and few places of more development, e.g., “Last Chance.” The highway is straight and the speed limit high, and big animals pop out of the dense lodgepole pine onto this heavily travelled route.
I drove through just two weeks ago. I see a major pine cutting operation is currently underway to remove the new, thick pine growth back to about 100 yards from the highway.
A detailed study of the road kill is also going on, as this article describes. Roadkill Problem on America’s Longest Main Street Studied. Discovery News.
He is a long time elk hunter and former federal wolf recovery coordinator for Idaho. He worked in Montana for most of his career (Wildlife Services)
Veteran Hunter’s Take on MT Elk Season. Public News Service.
US Fish and Wildlife Service takes over wolf management in Idaho.
Calling For Calm With Wolves. This statement was signed the Presidents/CEOs of the Boone and Crockett Club, Mule Deer Foundation, Pope and Young Club, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Safari Club, Wild Sheep Foundation, and Wildlife Management Institute.
“Outfitter set-asides” on the line. Will the average hunter benefit?
Is it a fairness issue? Will it serve to improve public access? Will it hurt or help the economy?
There has already been some discussion of I-161 here in this forum.
Is I-161 good for the future of hunting or just bad for business? By Michael Babcock. Great Falls Tribune.
It never fails. Every time I find myself driving across the immense open space and undulating landscape of the front range in Montana, I puzzle myself over the absence of bison. And each time I hear about the threat posed to livestock by wolves, I wonder how different it would be if bison were out there. Just today, I was speaking to Chief Jimmy St. Goddard of the Blackfeet Nation about restoring balance to nature (versus plopping species down onto landscapes), and he stated “wolves will go where the bison are.” Humans, being lazy by nature, tend to think that given the choice between cows and bison, wolves would favor the slow, dumb ones. But we’ve never given them that choice. Since wolves co-evolved with bison, I tend to think Chief Jimmy knows what he is talking about.
Last year, WWP’s Montana office premiered “Lords of Nature” in Montana, a film documenting the importance of top predators like wolves to healthy ecosystems. Scientists were surprised to learn after reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone that there was a dramatic improvement in riparian ecosystems, benefitting fish and birds and creating a cascading beneficial effect on the food chain. Then we had a lively panel discussion that included Montana Wolf Coordinator Carolyn Syme. In arguing for management authority in federal court, Montana emphasized how “all species fit together”, with the wolf being an “integral part” of the ecosystem. But when asked why bison should not then be welcomed back to Montana, Syme refused to answer, pretending the question was a matter of opinion, not science.
Earthquake hits Wyoming; landslide reported. Associated Press
Here is more detailed information from USGS.
Update. 4.4 earthquake jiggles valley. By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.. Jackson Hole Daily
Weldon Heyburn, an Idaho U.S. Senator, back in days before the 17th Amendment (which the Tea Party now wants to repeal), is best known as a backward looking man who hated the creation of the U.S. Forest Service. Political Scientist John Freemuth suggests that Mt. Heyburn, a famous landmark of the fabled Sawtooth Range bears an improper name.
Renaming Mountains: Idaho’s Mt. Heyburn, For One, Deserves Better. “It’s time to change the legacy of a man who didn’t fight for the Sawtooths and stood in the way of the early Forest Service.” By John Freemuth, High Country News, Guest Writer.
I agree.
Oil Sands Effort Turns on a Fight Over a Road. By Tom Zelller. New York Times.
I wish the NYT had also exposed the sellout to the oil companies by the states’ politicians.
Felony dismissed in elk poaching case. State botches test to determine animal’s trophy status. By Terry Smith. Idaho Mountain Express
This was the title of an October 15 article I wrote for the Farm & Ranch supplement of the Idaho Falls Post Register, in rebuttal to an October 1 article by Heather Smith Thomas. Heather writes a weekly column in the F&R, usually about livestock management, but she ran several consecutive columns about hard times on the range for ranchers due to wolves. A lot of her verbiage consisted of interviews with ranchers, and however much we may disagree with the sentiments, still, that’s what they said. However, when she began issuing flat, unattributed statements that there were no wolves in central Idaho before white settlement (they followed the cows and sheep in, don’t you know), I couldn’t let it pass, and e-mailed the editor, Bill Bradshaw. “Six hundred words by Tuesday,” he said, and this was the result:
Heather Smith Thomas’ article “Wolf Losses Go Beyond Actual Kills,” (Intermountain Farm and Ranch, October 1) is wrong in its assertions that wolves did not live in central Idaho before white settlement, and that “the wolves came later, following sheep and cattle herds brought into this valley.”
She cites no sources for this claim, except to mention that during Lewis and Clark’s stay in Lemhi County in 1805, they observed little game and no wolves. Apparently, if the Corps of Discovery didn’t see it, it must not have existed.
Yet, a little research would have turned up first-hand accounts of both abundant big game — and wolves — in central Idaho long before white settlement.
In 1831, for instance, the American Fur Company trapper Warren Ferris saw the Big Lost River valley “covered with Buffalo, many of which we killed.” His party also killed 100 buffalo, and two grizzly bears, on the Pahsimeroi River.
The following summer on Birch Creek, “our slumbers were disturbed by the bellowing of a herd of bulls, near us; and by the howling of a multitude of wolves, prowling about the buffalo. We were approached by a formidable grizzly bear, who slowly walked off, however, after we had made some bustle about our beds.”
On August 24, “we followed the trail to the forks of Salmon River, passing several other [deserted] encampments, which were now occupied by bears, wolves, ravens and magpies, which were preying upon the yet undevoured particles of dried meat, and fragments of skins scattered around them….in the night we were serenaded by the growling of bears and wolves, quarrelling for the half-picked bones about them.”
A few days later, “eight miles into the mountains that separate the valley of Salmon River from the Big Hole….we killed a grey wolf which was fat, and made us a tolerable supper; we likewise wounded a grizzly bear…”
They ate another wolf in the Big Hole, then wounded a buffalo. When they found the carcass the next day, it was surrounded by “thirty or forty wolves.” They drove the wolves off and scavenged the remains, while the wolves waited “politely” for them to finish. Continuing on to the Beaverhead, they bagged elk, deer, and antelope.
Between 1827 and 1832, Hudson’s Bay Company factors Peter Skene Ogden and John Work led several trapping expeditions into central Idaho, where scores of hunters and their families found abundant bighorn sheep just outside the city limits of Salmon. They killed buffalo in the Lemhi Valley foothills, saw “incredible” herds of antelope near Copper Basin, and yet more buffalo in the Pahsimeroi Valley. They trapped thousands of beaver. On what is now the INEL, buffalo were so plentiful that one of Work’s expeditions left most of the meat “for the wolves and starving Snakes [Shoshone Indians].”
In the winter of 1831-32, Captain Bonneville’s American trapping expedition moved their camp from near Carmen to the North Fork, where they found “numerous gangs of elk” and large flocks of bighorn sheep, which were easy to hunt and delicious.
In 1834, ornithologist John Kirk Townsend accompanied an expedition to the Columbia River which passed through the Salmon River country. He described an abundance of almost tame “blacktailed deer” in the Salmon River mountains. And somewhere between Big Lost River and Camas Prairie, he noticed “a deserted Indian camp” and “several white wolves lurking around in the hope of finding remnants of meat.”
Wolves are native to central Idaho. There’s no need to invent a past that never was, in an attempt to justify a point of view.
Heather has another article up this morning in the Farm & Ranch (“Wolves Go Where the Food Roams“), in which she admits that yes, there were a few wolves, but they were smaller, different wolves. Then she starts making stuff up again: “There were no elk in central Idaho in recent history.” Stay tuned as Round 2 begins!
Though doubtful in the short run, hopefully this will lead to fewer livestock losses, fewer government-killed wolves and less controversy, as it was before Idaho took over wolf management.
Service to Resume Lead for Wolf Management in Idaho as a Result of Governor’s Announcement. USFWS news release. Oct. 21, 2010.
In Wyoming, I can’t fault the continued federal management very much. Livestock losses are now almost nil (except sheep). Glad Butch Otter threw in the towel. He was just stirring up social conflict.
Earlier, I wrote about the special treatment ranchers get via private and public compensation programs, and how these government interventions into private property management issues creates what economists call a “moral hazard”, obscuring free-market incentives that would otherwise encourage behaviors that prevent wolf depredations from occuring in the first place.
State Pins Hopes for Wolves on Compensation :
Question: Why would a livestock producer go to the extra effort of pursuing predator-friendly grazing techniques when it’s cheaper to forgo the bother ? That’s what compensation does, it makes it cheaper to forgo the bother.
Compensation is a wonderful response to the livestock industry’s only rational, interest-based qualm. It eliminates financial loss. But is it about time to start asking how well this good-faith response is being received in Idaho ? Wyoming ? New Mexico ?
How does it motivate the behaviors that are necessary to practically co-exist with wolves ?
It doesn’t. In fact, just the opposite. The same would be true for any pest control program. If I was a rose-farmer and a government agency promised to intervene … say, pay for and spray my entire property for aphids should a problem arise, I might be apt to sacrifice a rose-bush or two on the periphery rather than employ any prophylactic myself. It is no different for publicly financed wolf extermination programs executed by Wildlife Services. Many ranchers are more than happy to let go an initial lame calf or two if it means an end to the local wolf pack.
Previously, Ralph gave his take on Brodie Farquhar’s essay which explored the very real difference in attitude toward wolves in the mid-west versus the west.
That difference plays out in very tangible ways with respect to policy. For example, in Minnesota regulatory conditions compliment government interventions into livestock/wolf management that are crafted to compel reponsible behavior, rather than dispel it.
Farmers are required to implement non-lethal and animal husbandry practices to prevent future attacks before any wolves are killed or farmers are eligible for compensation for wolf depredation. Read the rest of this entry »
Unlike the original story today on Otter’s decision, the story late tonight (Oct. 18) says “Idaho Fish and Game conservation officers will continue to collect information about illegal wolf kills, as they would for any endangered species and transfer it to federal law enforcement officials.” [emphasis mine]
Idaho Fish and Game will immediately work to transfer wolf management to federal government. By Roger Phillips. Idaho Statesman.
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Opinion from the Idaho Statesman. Our View: Wyoming has earned Gov. Butch Otter’s ire, not the feds. My view is you won’t win votes bashing Wyoming. That’s what the governor figures.
Idaho won’t manage wolves under ESA – John Miller, AP
“After talks with the federal government collapsed, Gov. C.L. ‘Butch’ Otter ordered Idaho wildlife managers Monday to relinquish their duty to arrest poachers or to even investigate when wolves are killed illegally.”
From his first day in office, Butch Otter has made wolves his signature issue even as the state of Idaho has drifted and floundered. Otter single-handedly destroyed the grudging acceptance wolf conservation groups were granting the Idaho and Montana wolf management plans. His threats to kill the first wolf in an Idaho wolf hunt, and bring their numbers down to the bare minimum . . . maybe kill them all . . . are real root of the current antagonism and anger that permeates the region.
When people point fingers about conservationists bringing lawsuits, they don’t need to look much beyond Butch Otter, who made it clear from start he would not listen to them, didn’t care, and wanted trouble.
Now it is up to the federal government to cave to Otter, manage the wolves, or redesignate someone like the Nez Perce Tribe to manage wolves in Idaho. The Tribe did an excellent job, and most of Idaho and Montana’s original wolf mangers were trained with the Tribe and moved into state roles when the states took over. The Tribe is not jumping at the chance to take up wolf management again. Rocky Barker: Nez Perce Tribe prefers to dodge Idaho wolf job. Idaho Statesman.
Because Idaho is no longer going to arrest poachers and it is currently the hunting season, a slaughter of wolves might be in order unless the federal government quickly brings in law enforcement. Because Idaho is no longer managing wolves, Wildlife Services, which is a federal agency though they rarely act like it, should no longer be killing wolves.
We have to wonder if Idaho Fish and Game will now let the radio frequencies of wolves fall into the hands of the poachers.
We think that gubernatorial politics also figures in this. Otter is facing a stiff Challenger from Keith Allred, a Democrat who is getting support from many Republicans who sense an extremism as well as lack of an economic plan in Otter’s administration. We note the Otter had to bring in Mitt Romney to campaign for him, most likely because Otter is weak with the LDS (Mormon) voters of Eastern Idaho. We don’t seem to see much more than a pro forma Otter campaign in Eastern Idaho. Otter’s opponent Keith Allred, is not a wolf supporter, but is not campaigning as a hothead.
This is a classic political stunt for a politician with a poor record fighting a tough campaign — pick a fight, especially one with a lot of emotion, but one which won’t cost the state money.
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Otter’s News Release
(BOISE) – Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter notified Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today that Idaho no longer will act as the federal government’s “designated agent,” managing wolves imposed on the state under the Endangered Species Act.
Instead, the Governor directed the Idaho Fish and Game Commission to immediately refocus its efforts on protecting Idaho’s deer, elk and moose, and said the Idaho Department of Fish and Game will be submitting applications to the Interior Department for additional flexibility in addressing wolf depredation issues “so we can exercise our sovereign right to protect our wildlife.”
“This directive preserves an individual’s right to kill a wolf in self defense or in the defense of another person. It does not jeopardize the existing flexibility landowners and permittees have to protect their livestock and pets from wolves,” Governor Otter wrote in a letter to Salazar. “Additionally, this approach does not ask Idahoans who continue suffering wolves – especially sportsmen – to subsidize any part of this federal program or bear the risk or burden of inadequate federal funding in the future.”
In his letter, the Governor reiterated that the State of Idaho has consistently proven itself to be a responsible steward of all wildlife – “including your wolves.”
“We also showed that we could successfully manage a hunting season for wolves as we do for other species,” he said. “The State managed wolves as part of the ecosystem, in concert with other species and needs, which was ironically decried by environmentalists who seemingly want wolves to benefit at the expense of other wild and domestic species.”
“I am still committed to finding a path forward for delisting. My goal remains restoring State management under our approved plan as quickly as possible, if for no other reason than to fulfill the promise of our State law that all wildlife within our borders will be managed by the State. To that end, I am encouraged by the efforts of representatives from the three legislatures (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming) to see if there is a path forward for delisting and state management,” Governor Otter wrote to Salazar. “Although we could not agree during the course of our negotiations, I share your commitment to delist the species and restore state management as quickly as possible. It is truly frustrating that we cannot accomplish that shared goal today.”
Salazar ♥♥♥ Offshore Drilling
Wash. Post: Grijalva Passed Over for Interior Sec. Because of Tough Stance on Offshore Drilling
Tucson, Ariz. – According to a recent featured story in the Washington Post, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva was passed over for Secretary of the Interior during the Obama transition because of his unwillingness to approve offshore drilling projects without first strengthening Bush-era environmental standards. The story, which ran Oct. 13, indicates that current Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was more in line with the president’s urge toward a “balanced” energy portfolio that included more offshore drilling.
Lifting the drilling moratorium: How politics spilled into policy – Michael Leahy and Juliet Eilperin – The Washington Post
Members of Obama’s transition team for the Interior Department, who were handling the preliminary talks with Grijalva and others, spoke enthusiastically about Obama’s “balanced” energy approach, which embraced new drilling as a transition to a day when “clean” energy could replace fossil fuels.
A dissenting Grijalva told the transition team that it was premature to talk about an expansion of drilling. His first priority, he said, would be correcting the dangerous imbalance he saw between industry and federal regulators. Before he could endorse expansion, Grijalva suggested, Interior would need to regain the upper hand.
Previously, a few of Salazar’s failures at Interior: Read the rest of this entry »
We haven’t been posting these are frequently as we could. Here is the latest. It has quite a bit of news. We have not seen an Idaho wolf news report since June.
When the chestnut blight hit in the 1950s, there were probably 3 billion American chestnut trees in the United States. Now there are perhaps only about a hundred trees in its natural range. The demise of the chestnut was a blow to wildlife that ate their prolific and reliable nut crop. The current die off of whitebark pine from a blight and bark beetles is a more recent catastrope.
There is now good news for the return of the American chestnut, The mighty American chestnut tree, poised for a comeback. By Juliet Elperin. Washington Post. Of course, it will take a hundred years for a widespread restoration, one that will have big ecological benefits.
The American chestnut’s blight resistance was created by crossing it with the highly resistant Chinese chestnut in way that retained essentially all the details of the American chestnut. Perhaps a similar restoration can be done for the whitebark pine, although I suppose the preferred method might be direct genetic manipulation of survivors because of a lack of closely related pines.
I think we will need more and more genetic science to keep our ecosystems from unravelling in this rapidly changing world.
It seems that some of the most vocal wolf opponents just keep digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole. At a recent event Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg claimed that Idaho officials were not going to uphold protections for wolves. Presumably he came to this conclusion based on public statements by IDFG commissioners who questioned whether they should enforce those protections without federal funds to do so. Or, he heard the claim that an IDFG conservation officer told a camp of hunters that the rules wouldn’t be enforced.
Even if the claims aren’t true, Rehberg sounds like he supports such a policy for Montana.
That kind of attitude isn’t going to help secure management authority over wolves to the states. It seems that I’m not the only one who thinks this either.
Ben Lamb of the Montana Wildlife Federation:
“It kind of makes us look like mouth-breathing rednecks here,” Lamb said. “And it gives credence to everything the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and Defenders of Wildlife say about the hunting community. It really polarizes the issue.”
Idaho officials deny Rehberg claim state will ignore wolf protections.
Missoulian
The EPA is considering lowering allowable particulate matter from 150 micrograms per cubic meter to the range of 65 to 85 micrograms. This would be a very good outcome for many reason ranging from health, soil erosion and snow melt runoff.
Recently a study implicated dust, primarily from western livestock grazing, as a big cause behind earlier and faster snow melt runoff in the Colorado Rockies which resulted in 5% less water in the Colorado River. Under current law there is little regulation on agricultural practices, especially livestock grazing, which could help mitigate this very real problem.
Of course the livestock industry is up in arms over the proposal and have gotten their lackey politicians involved.
“As usual, the EPA has failed to recognize the real-world impacts of their regulations,” [Mike] Simpson said in a press release.
Well, it looks like they are starting to recognize the impacts of their regulations. It now appears that they have seen the failure of their current regulations to protect long term public values over short term profits of the livestock industry. Let’s hope they make the change soon.
Proposed limits on dust irk farmers.
Capital Press agriculture news
Talk about lack of transparency in Montana and Idaho state governments! It’s good this was revealed just before Butch Otter has to face reelection as governor of Idaho.
Korean Documents Show 10-Year Promise for Highway 12. Public News Service.
The first pieces of the Korean equipment are now sitting in Lewiston, Idaho, ready to haul up through the Lolo country on Highway 12 and over to Montana.
Cocker drum ready to go in Lewiston. Photo from Conoco-Philips
“If we weren’t getting to them, they’d brush us off like a fly. After all, we’re just a little organization with 14 or 15 people, but they act like what we do is the end of the world.”
Dennis Higman does a profile on Jon for NewWest.
Fortunate for all of us who care about western public lands and wildlife, the degree to which ranchers and their politician lap-dogs whine about WWP is in direct proportion to the degree at which the organization is bringing much needed change and restoration to the western public landscape.
The Guy Idaho Ranchers Love to Hate – NewWest.net
There are two topics you don’t want to bring up with most Idaho ranchers: wolves and Jon Marvel, the white-haired, 63-year-old founder and executive director of the Western Watersheds Project.
This is my first time blogging here, and thanks to Ralph and Brian for sitting me down and inviting me. I’m going to try to attach a couple of photos to this post, so you’ll know what I’m talking about here.
U.S. Forest Service photo, photographer Paul Gross
Here’s a picture of a bull and a cow elk. No big deal, right? See them all the time in the Salmon River country, hardly worth wasting pixels on. But look again: look at the bull’s heavy body. Look at the madrone tree behind the cow. These are Klamath River elk, Roosevelt elk, and they only returned to the Klamath-Siskiyou mountains about twenty years ago. So when I see this photo, I get a little verklempt. It was taken just off the Bunker Hill Road, where I spent a lot of time doing silvicultural work in the 1970s and 1980s. In those days we never thought elk would be here again. The conventional wisdom was that you couldn’t reintroduce elk because the flat lands near the river, where they once wintered, were occupied by people now. In the 1920s, some Rocky Mountain elk had been turned loose near Scott Valley, but they didn’t last long. So as we drove up that road — many times, struggling to make a series of clearcuts grow trees again — we didn’t think about elk.
It never fails. Every time I find myself driving across the immense open space and undulating landscape of the front range in Montana, I puzzle myself over the absence of bison. And each time I hear about the threat posed to livestock by wolves, I wonder how different it would be if bison were out there. Just today, I was speaking to Chief Jimmy St. Goddard of the Blackfeet Nation about restoring balance to nature (versus plopping species down onto landscapes), and he stated “wolves will go where the bison are.” Humans, being lazy by nature, tend to think that given the choice between cows and bison, wolves would favor the slow, dumb ones. But we’ve never given them that choice. Since wolves co-evolved with bison, I tend to think Chief Jimmy knows what he is talking about.
Last year, WWP’s Montana office premiered “Lords of Nature” in Montana, a film documenting the importance of top predators like wolves to healthy ecosystems. Scientists were surprised to learn after reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone that there was a dramatic improvement in riparian ecosystems, benefitting fish and birds and creating a cascading beneficial effect on the food chain. Then we had a lively panel discussion that included Montana Wolf Coordinator Carolyn Syme. In arguing for management authority in federal court, Montana emphasized how “all species fit together”, with the wolf being an “integral part” of the ecosystem. But when asked why bison should not then be welcomed back to Montana, Syme refused to answer, pretending the question was a matter of opinion, not science.
This year, we are presenting two films with a panel discussion. We’re excited to show the new High Plains Films documentary on bison, “Facing the Storm.” According to the filmmakers, the film shows that “the American bison is not just an icon of a lost world, but may very well show us the path to the future.” In a second theatre, we will be showing a film that premiered at the Wildlife Film Festival last year, “The Wolf that Changed America.” It’s a remarkable story about a wolf bounty hunter named Ernest Seton who was hired in 1893 to kill America’s last wolf, a notoriously crafty and elusive wolf named Lobo, and was so changed by the ordeal that he became a global advocate for wolves and helped spearhead America’s wilderness movement. Afterward, there will be a panel discussion with George Wuerthner, author of “Welfare Ranching”, Richard Manning, author of “Rewilding the West”, FWP Commissioner Ron Moody, and Chief Jimmy. Buffalo Field Campaign Spokesperson Stephany Seay will moderate the discussion.
According to recent scientific studies by independent experts, wild bison present almost no risk whatsoever of transmitting brucellosis to livestock. So the kind of balanced wildlife management approach we intend to discuss in this public forum is socially feasible, scientifically justified, morally compelling, and economically smart. Please join the dialogue.
Tom Woodbury, Montana Director, Western Watersheds Project.
In so many ways the issue of brucellosis in bison and elk is similar to the issue of domestic sheep diseases and bighorn except the rationalization for killing wildlife is just the opposite.
We now know that domestic sheep are responsible for disease issues in bighorn sheep and those who support the livestock industry want to simply deny it and continue to allow domestic sheep to use areas where there is an obvious conflict and to kill bighorn sheep if the “invade” the sacred domestic sheep allotments.
With bison the same argument is turned on its head so that bison are routinely hazed and slaughtered for being on the sacred landscape of the holy cow. Forget that there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim that bison are a truly a risk to cattle that are not even on the landscape when bison are capable of transmitting brucellosis. The bison must be tortured and killed so that the sacred cow can eat the grass that those pesky beasts are eating.
Well, now comes evidence to show that bison another species, elk, have been the culprit in spreading brucellosis to the sacred cow. Are we now going to see a new war waged against them? Forget that brucellosis came from domestic livestock in the first place. Something must be done to protect the kings and queens of the West and the taxpayer must fork over millions upon millions of dollars for a pointless and impossible eradication exercise so that the livestock industry won’t ever have to face any adversity.
Think it won’t happen? Well, it has already begun and the livestock industry will use this new study to rationalize it and to rationalize continuation of their bison policies as well.
DNA Tests Indicate Yellowstone National Park Elk, Not Bison, Most Likely To Spread Brucellosis.
Kurt Repanshek – National Parks Traveler
Beavers
On June 26th, 2010, I inspected the South Fork of Mink Creek to document conditions of the Box Canyon road culvert that was being plugged by beaver. Like many roads throughout the west, the South Fork Road parallels the creek and so problems with the road-creek interface are, at best, managed. From its confluence with the West Fork of Mink Creek, the South Fork extends to its headwaters near the southern flank Scout Mountain in southwest Bannock County. In the spring of 2010, I had seen no less than 25 beaver dams as far as the headwaters. I was eager to see how the beaver were doing.
As I followed the South Fork upstream, I noticed that the dams I had seen the previous spring were failing, a sign that the beaver were no longer working in the area. As I rode towards the Box Canyon Crossing, I observed more and more abandoned dams and receding water levels. By the time I reached the end of the road, four out of five colonies were abandoned.
I continued riding through the canyon up to the gentle plateau that forms the upper South Fork drainage. It was here that I hoped to see again the massive beaver ponds and the expanded willow acreage that ten years earlier was little more than dead sticks surrounding a marginal trampled, eroded stream. Now, these colonies were also gone. What once was a stream with approximately 35 potential cutthroat rearing ponds is now a silty, slithering stream, losing velocity and flowing muddily towards the Portneuf River.
There are bumper stickers on every IDFG vehicle that say “Ask First to Hunt and Fish on Private Property”. Honest mistake? Maybe, but who knows what the implications are.
Idaho Fish & Game Director Among Elk Hunters Questioned for Trespassing.
NewWest.Net
Well, this is good news, and just what we would expect. If wolves had been allowed to recolonize on their own, they would not be at all like this. This is why I supported reintroduction instead of regulation heavy natural recolonization under full ESA protection.
Study finds wolves genetically diverse, dispersing. By Corey Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide
I see some attempt trying to spin this paper into evidence for delisting, but no one ever said that the wolf population as of 2004 was not genetically diverse. The question is about the effect of the state management plans over time, not the wolf population prior to state management.
Recently, Madeleine Pickens purchased the 14,000 acre Spruce Ranch and gained control of adjacent BLM livestock grazing allotments amounting to 500,000 acres between Wells and Ely, Nevada.
This private land acquisition and control of the associated public lands sets the stage for Pickens’ intent to create a wild horse sanctuary for 10,000 wild horses in northeastern Nevada.
Saving America’s Mustangs: A Prospectus
The Pickens proposal raises many legal and regulatory issues that will need to be addressed by the BLM before any such sanctuary could be created. Read the rest of this entry »
Arizona is rethinking the fairness of this tradition. So are people in other states.
Arizona Rethinking Open Range Laws. By Marc Lacey. New York Times.
If you hit a black cow in the middle of the night on a public highway, you are always to blame and will have to pay for the dead cow even as you pay for your spouse, friend or child’s funeral.
By Ken Cole, Ralph Maughan, and Brian Ertz.
Ever since wolves were relisted as an Endangered Species by Judge Molloy of Montana there has been a persistent drone of editorial opinion, political grandstanding, and accusations made about and against wolf/Endangered Species Act (ESA) advocates.
Backlash.
Just recently, a piece was written that claimed wolf advocates “blew it” by fighting too long and too hard to protect the integrity of the ESA via fighting to keep protections for wolves. It went on to say that wolf advocates should have made an offer to settle rather than fight for the integrity of the ESA and now they are responsible for giving their opponents ammunition to threaten the integrity of the ESA.
The fact of the matter is that wolf advocate plaintiffs have been in settlement discussions with defendants, sadly enough, even after the court victory re-instating protections for wolves. It’s been wolf-opponents such as representatives of the state of Idaho that have declined to participate, refusing to even send anyone to these discussions. So who’s being too strident and why?
Furthermore, any settlement agreement must be reviewed by the public which means that it is an action that could be litigated by any number of groups for various reasons.
Given the quality of the rabid anti-wolf folks, it might be easy to forget that many hunters (more than 50%?) take a balanced view of animals and hunting access.
I think there is too much demonization of hunters per se on this blog. Folks should be careful to separate hunters into their various categories. Hunters are like everyone else in that their ethics, skill, and hunting interests come from how they were raised, where they were raised, how they learned to hunt, their age, their occupation and more.
Some hunters like predators, dislike ATVs. By Tom Wharton. The Salt Lake Tribune
Ralph Maughan
This is not a complete project. If you can add anything on candidates’ positions that would be interesting. R L asked us for some help, but we were not able to give him much.
Stupid Goes Viral: Climate Zombies of HI, ID, MN, MT, OR, WY. By R L Miller
Senator Crapo is one of Idaho’s U.S. Senators. He is running for re-election this year, and looks very solid for winning over Democrat Tom Sullivan. On Crapo: “In Idaho, Senator Mike Crapo believes that ‘While there is no dispute over the fact that the Earth’s climate has changed many times over the planet’s history, the underlying cause of these climactic shifts is ultimately not well-understood and is a matter of vigorous debate.’ “
Having a one party state is a problem here. Representative Hart, who took timber, only faces a write-in candidate.
Rep. Hart logged state land for home. Candidate never paid debt for stolen timber. Betsy Z. Russell. The Spokesman-Review
This coyote was found hanging from a fence post on the Mud Flat Road in Owyhee county. Graphic. Read the rest of this entry »
Clear the land of life for power generation that could be achieved by installing solar panels on rooftops where it is used. The bulldozers, fences, and powerlines are next.
The science shows that half of these endangered desert tortoises will die and an equal number of the tortoises that will be displaced but the moved tortoises will die as well. It’s all a charade under the guise of GREEN ENERGY that is being greenwashed by many of the big “conservation” groups.
Other alternatives were never examined because that would get in the way of the profits of those big power companies who will profit at the expense of the taxpayers and more importantly habitat and wildlife. There is a playa just across the freeway where Bob Abbey, the director of the BLM, likes to landsail. It was never considered as an alternative site.
The effort in San Bernardino County’s panoramic Ivanpah Valley, just north of Interstate 15 and about 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas, disrupted complex tortoise social networks and blood lines linked for centuries by dusty trails, shelters and hibernation burrows.
Biologists scour Mojave in desert tortoise roundup
Los Angeles Times
Bighorn Sheep © Ken Cole
This is another exposé about the fallout of the Payette bighorn viability decision and the latest science which conclusively shows that domestic sheep diseases kill bighorn sheep. What jumps out at me is the information contained near the bottom of the article which says that the BLM is evaluating its policy regarding the two species in Idaho.
“BLM spokeswoman Jessica Gardetto said her agency is working statewide with agencies and grazing permittees on regional separation response plans, but has no timeline for their completion. Biologists are using a 30-mile separation as a guide and will review grazing allotments within that distance first.”
The bigger question here regards what is happening elsewhere. Are the BLM and Forest Service reviewing their sheep grazing permits in other states? I should hope so because, in places like Nevada, where sheep grazing routinely occurs extremely close to, or within, occupied bighorn habitat, the risk of exposure is extremely high and underestimated by the agencies in favor of the “custom and culture” of the elite ranchers who often turn out to be big corporations like Barrick Gold or the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Missoulian reports that a subsidiary of the national oil company of Korea now wants to use scenic U.S. Highway 12 through north central Idaho and over Lolo Pass to transport numerous giant oil (tar sands) equipment to Alberta.
Despite worthless assurances about this kind of activity being a one time thing, it’s plainly obvious that as predicted the oil companies mean to make the highway along this asphalt ribbon through the wilderness an equipment hauling route.
This will slowly ruin the lives to downstream residents who have to endure these highway blockages, disrupt traffic into Montana, harm the Lochsa, and Middle Fork of the Clearwater River, and make recreational and timber cutting access into the surrounding mountains slow and difficult by requiring long alternative routes.
Third oil company looks to bring big rigs over U.S. Highway 12. By Kim Briggeman of the Missoulian.
The Lochsa River. North Central Idaho. Copyright Ralph Maughan
While Highway 12 through Idaho is just a 2-line highway, its improvement over the years (a gravel road until the 1960s) has long disrupted the lives of people. In the past it was Montana. A number of abandoned Eastern Montana towns came to their end as transport of their grain changed from the railroads to trucks going in the opposite direction down Highway 12.
“Judge Israel sternly told Mayer that he is charged with “flagrant unlawful killing and/or possession of a trophy bull elk,” a crime punishable in Idaho by up to five years in prison and a one-year to lifelong loss of hunting and fishing rights.”
“Accused elk poacher faces possible life hunting ban.” “Twin Falls man charged with killing trophy elk out of season.”
Idaho Mountain Express. By Terry Smith
Update. The story in Outdoor Life.
I missed this one but it is important. Everyone knew that the states and many other groups would appeal Judge Molloy’s ruling on wolves but no one was sure whether the Federal Government would appeal the ruling too. Now that question has been answered.
State and others file appeal on wolf ruling.
By Eve Byron – Helena Independent Record
It looks like the USFWS saw through Montana’s notion of having a sport hunt on wolves under the guise of a “conservation hunt”. They said no.
Montana – Permission Denied to Hunt Gray Wolves. Associated Press in the New York Times
Longer version:
Federal officials deny Montana request to hold a ‘conservation hunt’ for endangered wolves.
Canadian Business Online
Even longer version:
Federal officials deny Montana wolf hunt request.
BusinessWeek
Well, Butch’s deadline came and passed and still no MOA in place.
Otter backs down on wolf ultimatum.
Magic Valley Times News
This is probably a big surprise. It is to me. I broke my collarbone on a dirt bike way back in ’84. I didn’t ride them again.
Surprise: Two Wheels Safer Than Four in Off-Road Riding and Racing, Study Finds. ScienceDaily.
Wyoming Gray Wolf Recovery Status Report. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Sept. 27 through Oct. 1, 2010
Although the report makes no mention of this, the report includes detailed graphs of wolf population and livestock losses to wolves over the years. Look at figure 1 in the report. If you take out one exceptional data point (a large sheep depredation in the Bighorn Mountains in 2009), there is no association between wolf numbers and depredations numbers since 2006. There was a trend until that time.
This is important because we hear from USFWS and others something like this Ad nauseum, “The good locations for wolves are all taken. As the population of wolves expands, conflicts with livestock will increase and at an accelerating rate.” [note that this not a actual quote, but a summation of many quotes].
I remember when this interest group held enormous power, rivaling the livestock associations, although they were not rivals, of course.
Timber association will disband after 75 years. By Becky Kramer. Spokesman-Review.
A new superintendent of Yellowstone Park is always an event of major conservation importance. The Park’s super for the last 8 years has been Suzanne Lewis, a person not particularly favored by conservationists. She is retiring.
High-ranking park official to take Yellowstone reins in 2011. By Daniel Person. Bozeman Chronicle.
Pygmy rabbit
The declining condition of the Sagebrush Sea has been highlighted on a couple of occasions over the past couple of weeks. In recent Washington state news we learned that jackrabbits in sagebrush habitats are diminishing. Pygmy rabbits were rejected ESA protections by the Obama administration last week, and earlier last year Dr. Steven Herman remorsefully described his account of the extinction of the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit:
Science is seldom followed in these endangered species “interventions”. Politics trumps science -and conservation.
We need to remember the Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit as an example of a form lost in part to the the insanity of Public Grazing.
Significant threats to sagebrush habitat across the western landscape continue to threaten and diminish a variety of sagebrush obligate species.
Sagebrush habitat is among the most imperiled ecosystems in North America and the rate at which our unique western wildlife and fish communities are declining is truly alarming.
Attempting to bring the most relief in the least amount of time, environmentalists continue to push for Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for a number of umbrella species endemic to sagebrush habitats, including the grand-master of the Sagebrush Sea: the Greater Sage grouse.
Prioritizing these “umbrella” species is important, because when successfully listed, the protections secured these species will blanket entire ecosystems positively affecting the diversity of fish, wildlife, and environmental values which share the explicitly protected individuals’ habitat. It’s like hitting a plethora of birds with one stone (bad analogy).
Ken Cole (age 11) holds pygmy rabbit
So it is with the charismatic, imperiled pygmy rabbit, North America’s tinniest bunny, and the only arboreal rabbit (climbs sagebrush) on Earth !
In 2003, a coalition of conservation groups petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to list pygmy rabbits under the ESA.
In early 2008, the USFWS, responding to legal pressure from conservation groups, finally issued a positive 90-day finding for pygmy rabbits, initiating a more thorough assessment of whether to protect the bunny under the ESA.
The agency dragged its feet again, prompting Western Watersheds Project et al to provide a legal reminder, again, of its court ordered obligation to the bunny …
“We find there has been some loss and degradation of pygmy rabbit habitat range-wide, but not to the magnitude that constitutes a significant threat to the species,” Bob Williams, supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Nevada, said in a statement.
Rare Oasis of Life Discovered Near Geothermal Vents on Floor of Yellowstone Lake. ScienceDaily
This discovery is from research by Montana State University.
Yellowstone is already one of the world’s greatest site for research into heat tolerant extremophiles
Oh yes, you can’t make this stuff up:
Anti-wolf activist accused of poaching – Idaho Mountain Express
The founder of a Twin Falls-based, anti-wolf Internet site has been charged with a felony for allegedly killing a trophy bull elk out of season last year in the Alturas Lake area of northern Blaine County.
The radio collared 2-year-old male of the Wenaha Pack has been killed. It is under USFWS investigation which generally means that it was killed illegally.
Protected wolf killed in NE Oregon.
Associated Press
Michael J. Connor, Ph.D.
California Director
Western Watersheds Project
Ancient Mojave yuccas on the Ivanpah power plant site. (2009) © Michael J. Connor, Ph.D.
Secretary of the Interior Salazar is about to initial a series of major giveaways of public lands in California to industrial-scale solar power producers. These “fast-tracked” power plant projects have had truncated environmental reviews in the current administration’s rush to place huge chunks of public land in the hands of developers to build on them at public expense.
The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant project is a prime example. The project’s proponent, BrightSource Energy, will build an experimental “power tower” solar power plant on over five and a half square miles of high quality desert tortoise habitat in California’s Ivanpah Valley. The 1.7 billion dollar project will be primed with $1.3 billion in public “economic stimulus” funds provided by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.
The project is the first of a number of power plants proposed for public lands in the Ivanpah Valley. A photovoltaic plant is planned right next door to the Ivanpah power plant. Just down the valley over the Nevada border is the proposed Silver State power plant. These and other projects will block off the Ivanpah Valley, turn the North Ivanpah Valley into an industrial zone, and will have major consequences for rare and endangered wildlife. Although the ESA-listed desert tortoise population is declining, the Ivanpah power plant will split the North Ivanpah Valley, eliminate desert tortoise habitat, require that resident tortoises be relocated placing them and any resident tortoises at the relocation site in danger, and will severely compromise connectivity and gene flow between important desert tortoise populations. It will also impact foraging for bighorn sheep and other wildlife, a number of rare plants, and an assemblage of barrel cactus unrivaled elsewhere in the Golden State. Native Americans cultural remains including unusual stone structures will be stranded in a sea of mirrors. The agencies don’t know what these structures are, so how can they be important? No matter that the local Chemehuevi Indians don’t share that view.
Bighorn sheep in the Salmon River Canyon of Idaho © Ken Cole
Across the West domestic sheep operations threaten the viability of bighorn sheep populations and have caused serious declines because of the diseases they carry. Last winter there were ten populations that suffered from pneumonia outbreaks and many more are suffering the lingering effects of previous outbreaks which reduces lamb survival to very low levels for many years after the initial outbreak.
In Hell’s Canyon bighorn sheep are only a small fraction of the estimated 10,000 capacity. These sheep have faced a declining population because the lamb survival is too low to replace the adults that die of other causes. The Salmon River Canyon and Central Idaho herds have faced many of these same issues but they are the last remaining native bighorn in the state.
Western Watersheds Project has been working very hard to get the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to develop scientifically based policies which would effectively keep bighorn sheep from ever coming into contact with domestic sheep. Unfortunately political interference by the woolgrowers and politicians has prevented the agencies from tackling this issue head on. Recently, though, the Payette National Forest decided to close about 70% of the sheep grazing area due to concerns of disease. This is one of the first cracks in the armor of the oligarchical system which holds great political sway but provides little, if any, economic benefit to the public for the subsidies it provides.
The Payette Bighorn Sheep Viability Decision has been appealed by Western Watersheds Project; the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife; the State of Washington, Department of Fish & Wildlife; the Nez Perce Tribe with other groups; and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation primarily because it implements the decision gradually over a period of three years rather making the closures all at once. The Idaho Woolgrowers Association et. al.; Soulen Livestock Company; Frank Shirts Jr., Shirts Brothers Sheep, & Ronald and Leslie Shirts have all appealed the decision because it threatens their interests. One glaring absence is the Idaho Department of Fish and Game who recently issued a Draft Bighorn Sheep Management Plan which essentially maintains the status quo because it feels it has no power to influence the decisions of the Federal land management agencies. This would be an incorrect assumption if it weren’t for the political interference of the small but politically powerful group of woolgrowers on the legislature.
Great Gray Owl near Beaver Creek Summit (Lowman area), Idaho © Ken Cole
Please don’t post entire articles here, just the link, title and your comments about the article. Most of these violate copyright law. They also take up too much space.
Every once in awhile you come across a Letter to the Editor that just really hits it out of the park:
Wolves: Only lazy ranchers blame predator – Missoulian LTE
Do you want to speak your mind and tell Denny Rehberg what you think about wolves? Here’s your chance. Of course these “hearings” are just grandstanding and are being held only in areas where anti-wolf sentiment is strong but you can attend and let your voice be heard.
Issues like this are just a distraction from other real problems in Montana. Jobs, education, and other concerns are subservient to those of ranchers and the noble landed elite.
Don’t expect much factual information at these hearings. Oh, and while you are there you can meet Toby Bridger…. or is that Toby Bridges of LoboWatch fame.
Congressman Denny Rehberg : YOU`RE INVITED: Wolf Impact Hearings in Dillon, Hamilton, Kalispell.
Cameras show wildlife use Highway 93 North overpass and tunnel. By Vince Devlin. Missoulian
Not the first time we have posted a story on these tunnels, but their use keeps growing.
It’s funny to see how Governor Otter, an outspoken anti-wolf politician, tries to calm a bunch of other outspoken anti-wolf politicians. It’s obviously an uncomfortable position for him to be in because he has to face reality about the situation which is not what the reactionary politicians in Idaho County want to hear.
Their request raised concerns about human safety and wolves but, considering there have only been two cases of human death attributed to wolves in the last hundred years, even Otter had to remind them they already had the right to defend themselves and others against wolf attacks. They also ask for state and federal help with livestock depredations but they already have Wildlife Services.
The Governor writes:
In your declaration you specifically reference concerns about public safety. Please be aware that you have always been able to kill a wolf in self defense or in the defense of other humans. That has not changed, nor is a disaster declaration necessary for you to protect yourselves and loved ones from wolves.
You also reference the need for state and federal resources under a disaster declaration to address livestock depredations. You should know that livestock owners already are allowed to kill wolves that are attacking (killing, wounding, or biting) or in the act of attacking (actively chasing, molesting, harassing) their livestock, stock animals and dogs. Additionally, livestock owners can get a “shoot-on-sight” permit for chronic depredations. In 2010, there were six confirmed livestock depredations, two probable and one possible depredation reported in Idaho County. All Idaho County livestock depredation claims which occurred before September 10, 2010, should have been submitted to Defenders of Wildlife and those after that date can be submitted for payment under the state compensation plan.
Black-tailed Jackrabbit
The ongoing assault on the Sagebrush Sea claims another victim: Jackrabbits
Another animal most commonly considered a pest and valued by the western Cowboy “Custom & Culture” for little more than target-practice, jackrabbits, are disappearing from the landscape:
Jack Rabbit Populations Are Under Study In Washington State – OPB News
Larson says both black-tail and white-tail jack rabbits are now candidates for listing as threatened or endangered in Washington.
Audio via OPB News
Idaho and Montana have submitted proposals to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for approval to kill up to 186 wolves in Montana and up to 80% of the estimated 76 wolves in Idaho’s Lolo hunting zones.
Here is the IDFG proposal:
IDFG proposes an adaptive strategy to reduce the wolf population in the Lolo Zone. Wolves will be removed to manage for a minimum of 20 to 30 wolves in 3 to 5 packs. The level of removal will be dependent on pre-treatment wolf abundance. Using the minimum estimated number of 76 wolves in the Lolo Zone at the end of 2009 (Mack et al. 2010), a minimum of 40 to 50 wolves would be lethally removed during the first year. Removal during subsequent years would be lower, but variable, depending on wolf abundance. However, IDFG will maintain a minimum of 20 to 30 wolves annually in the Lolo Zone for a period of 5 years.
We’ve covered the Lolo wolf issue in detail over the last several years.
Read the rest of this entry »
Big Fuel Spill from Rig on U.S. 12. By George Prentice. Boise Weekly.
Tanker crashes and spills fuel along US Highway 12. Associated Press
Will this possible disaster (the oil hasn’t yet run into the river) influence the Idaho Supreme Court’s decision whether to overturn the injunction by 2nd District Judge John Bradbury to halt the oversized loads of massive tar sands equipment bound for Alberta?
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