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Efforts are in place to halt trapping that illegally kills one of the rarest cats in the United States, the Canada lynx. The Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and Friends of the Clearwater notified Gov. Butch Otter, the director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and members of the state Fish and Game Commission of the Endangered Species Act violations in permitting trapping that leads to incidental killing of lynx. April 7, 2014 Read More
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has a plan to spend as much as $100,000 over two years to poison ravens in three areas across Idaho in order to protect sage grouse. April 4, 2013 Read More Idaho Fish and Game, in cooperation with the USDA Wildlife Services, has completed another wolf control action in northern Idaho's Lolo elk zone near the Idaho/Montana border to improve poor elk survival in the area. In February, Wildlife Services agents killed 23 wolves from a helicopter. The action is consistent with Idaho's predation management plan for the Lolo elk zone, where predation is the major reason elk population numbers are considerably below management objectives....This is the sixth agency control action taken in Lolo zone during the last four years. Twenty-five wolves were taken in the previous five actions. February 28, 2014 Read More The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is in the process of seeking input from stakeholder representatives to address issues surrounding trapping, according to IDFG Panhandle Regional Supervisor Chip Corsi. Coeur d'Alene resident, avid hiker and dog lover Kathy McNelis contacted Corsi in response to two recent Press articles reporting the deaths of two family dogs who were inadvertently killed in body-gripping traps on North Idaho lands about one month apart, February 17, 2014 Read More A public hearing is scheduled for Monday at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise on Governor Otter’s “Wolf Control Board” bill HB470 which establishes a board which would composed solely of people appointed by the Governor, February 14, 2014. Read More Officials with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in the northern part of the state are proposing that hunters be allowed to use bait to kill more wolves as a way to bolster elk numbers in the Panhandle region. The Fish and Game Department made the recommendation this week as part of its Middle Fork Predation Management Plan. The agency also wants to expand hunting for bears and cougars to kill more of those predators, February 13, 2004. Read More A professional hunter has been called out of a federal wilderness in central Idaho because it had been two weeks since he had killed any wolves, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game as reported by the Idaho Mountain Express in a story on Wednesday that the hunter killed eight wolves with traps and a ninth by hunting, January 29, 2014. Read More Idaho Fish and Game commissioners have approved a statewide elk management plan that includes killing more predators to boost elk populations. Commissioners unanimously approved the 10-year plan Thursday that calls for killing more wolves, bears and cougars, reported the Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho, January 21, 2014. Read More U.S. District Judge for Idaho Edward J. Lodge has issued a ruling denying plaintiffs’ case against an ongoing plan to eradicate two wolf packs in Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.January 17, 2014. Read More A guest editorial in the Idaho Statesman explains how wolf slaughter is tarnishing Idaho's image. January 15, 2014. Read More |
A coalition of conservationists ask federal judge in Idaho to halt a program by the U.S. Forest Service and Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) to exterminate two wolf packs in Idaho wilderness area, January 7, 2014. Read More Read More Yet
Idaho proposes $2M wolf control fund, January 6, 2014. A new $2million wolf control fund is among Gov. Butch Otter's proposals for the coming year. The state funding would be one-time, and legislation would call for the state's cattle industry and sportsmen also to contribute to the fund. "One form of growth we don't want to encourage is in the wolf population that was imposed on Idaho almost 20 years ago," Otter declared. "With your unflinching support, we were able to fight through the opposition of those who would make Idaho into a restricted-use wildlife refuge and take back control of these predators from our federal landlords." Spokesman Review
Hunter organization to pay $500 for each trapped Idaho wolf, January 3, 2014. The hunters behind the little-known Foundation for Wildlife Management know three things about trapping wolves. First, it is a much more effective wolf management tool than hunting. Wolf hunters have a success rate of less than one percent, while trappers enjoy a success rate near 25 percent. Second, wolf trapping is time consuming and expensive. Read more.
Feds push to end endangered protection for gray wolves ignites opposition, November 20, 2013 - Federal authorities in charge of saving wolves from extinction ignited outrage Tuesday when they made their case to end protection for wolves. Read more.
Who dares confront the anti-wolf mob?, October 29, 2013 - Just for the sake of argument, pretend that instead of this being 2013, it is 1963. And suppose for a moment that our tri-state region is Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, not Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Read more.
Sorry, but wolf slaughter is not American, October 28, 2013 - “Fed Up in Wyoming” reads the caption under this stunning photograph posted on a hunter’s Facebook page. The photo is yet more evidence that, two years after political reactionaries led a successful campaign in the House of Representatives and then the Senate to remove the North Rocky Mountain gray wolf from the endangered species list, the slaughter of wolves continues to escalate as wolf hunters fall deeper in their paranoid fantasy that the wolf represents a liberal conspiracy against rural communities. Read more.
Dead wolf display was an act of hate, October 16, 2013 - Two stories have dominated Jackson’s environmental news this past week. The stories invite us to question the different characteristics, personalities, life experiences, attitudes, beliefs and values that cause individuals to act the way they do.Read more.
Defazio applauds decision to restart review of gray wolf delisting September 30, 2013 - Today, Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee Peter DeFazio (D-OR) applauded a recent decision by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to restart the peer review process for the proposed delisting of gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Read more.
Why are the feds giving up on wolf recovery in California, September 29, 2013 - Ten years ago, the idea of gray wolves in California was a faraway dream. At the time, there were fewer than 1,000 wolves across the entire Western United States - most of them safely tucked away in the forests of central Idaho, northwest Montana and Yellowstone National Park. Read more.
Don’t Roll Back Federal Protections for Wolves, September 17, 2013 - As Washington state lawmakers and wildlife managers fine-tune the state’s wolf conservation and management plan, they need only look to the nation’s capital for some tips on what not to do. Read more.
Wolves Under Review, August 15, 2013 - In June the Fish & Wildlife Service prematurely proposed to end federal protection for gray wolves in the lower 48 states in the belief that wolves had fully recovered from near eradication in the early 20th century. This was politics masquerading as science. Read more.
Feds Accused of Purging Independent Gray Wolf Panel, August 9, 2013 - Federal officials apparently ordered a purge of an independent science panel tasked with reviewing whether gray wolves should come off the Endangered Species List, a move the federal government supports. Read more.
Should Wolves Stay Protected Under Endangered Species Act?, July 18, 2013 - On June 13 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposal to remove Endangered Species Act protection for all wolves in the contiguous states save about 75 of the Mexican subspecies in Arizona and New Mexico. There’s now a 90-day public comment period, and the service is being torn apart like a geriatric moose. Read more.
70 Percent of Voters Value Wolves as Vital to America’s Wilderness, Heritage, July 17, 2013 - A new national poll finds that 70 percent of voters believe wolves are a vital part of America’s wilderness and natural heritage and only 1 in 3 support the Obama administration’s proposal to strip Endangered Species Act protection from wolves in the lower 48 states. The poll also finds that 56 percent say wolves should be given a chance to return to unoccupied wolf habitat in places like Colorado, California and the Northeast. Read more.
Politics Dominated Wolf Delisting Meetings, June 27, 2013 - The federal government’s plan to remove the gray wolf from the protections of the Endangered Species Act was hammered out through political bargaining with affected states, according to documents obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Read more.
Is The Far Right Driving Wolves To Extinction?, June 25, 2013 - The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent announcement that it is beginning the process for removing gray wolves across the country from the protection of the Endangered Species Act surprised no one. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s mid-1990s reintroduction of gray wolves - a species virtually extirpated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho marked a triumph for conservationists and ranks as one of the most striking fulfillment’s of the Endangered Species Act. But as I have reported here and here, the wolves quickly met enemies. Read more.
Man vs Wolf, June 20, 2013 - Robert Roman cradles a pale wolf skull in his upturned palm. He does not hate wolves, he says, gripping the hollow eye sockets and turning the bleached bone in his hands. Perhaps God just built the wolf too well. Read more.
Grey Wolves Need Time. Recovery Has Been Robust But It’s Not Yet Complete, June 12, 2013 - The federal government should abandon its premature plan to remove endangered species protections for gray wolves in the lower 48 states - including Oregon, where the apex predator’s numbers have yet to reach sustainable levels. Read more.
Value of Wolves, Feds Must Maintain Some Oversight, June 10, 2013 - The image of the government declaring “Mission Accomplished” is etched in Americans’ minds, and not in a good way. Just as former President George W. Bush was wrong when he made that announcement about the Iraq war, the feds might well be wrong in declaring the gray wolf no longer in need of protection in the West. Read more.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Move Forward With Proposed Delisting, June 10, 2013 - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday it plans to stop protecting the gray wolf and put the states in charge of managing these predators. But the plan is already facing some tough opposition from wolf advocate groups that say it’s too early for this discussion. Read more.
Don’t Forsake the Gray Wolf, June 7, 2013 - It has been celebrated as one of the great victories of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. After several decades of federal protection, gray wolves - once nearly wiped out in the continental United States - have reached a population of roughly 6,100 across three Great Lakes states and seven Western states. Read more.
National Grey Wolf Delisting Delayed, May 22, 2013 - The Obama Administration’s plan to remove the gray wolf from the protections of the Endangered Species Act, as detailed in a draft Federal Register notice released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, is temporarily on hold. Read more.
Wolf Slaughter Continues in the Rocky Mountains, January 31, 2013 - Lynne Stone, longtime wolf advocate and executive director of central Idaho’s Boulder White Clouds Council in Ketchum, couldn’t help but laugh. For the last two years she has routinely petitioned the Idaho Dept of Fish and Game for every single “ Big Game Mortality Report” filed on wolves killed by hunters - several hundred of them since the animals lost Endangered Species Act protection. Hunters and trappers are required to send in the report along with the skull and pelt for examination. In mid-January Stone ran across a November 2012 report that stated, “DNA came back as a domestic dog,” a light-skinned one. Read more.
Wolf Torture and Execution Continues in the Northern Rockies,March 28, 2012 - On March 16, a Friday, a US Forest Service employee from Grangeville, Idaho, laid out his wolf traps. The following Monday, using the name “Pinching,” he posted his story and pictures on www.Trapperman.com . “I got a call on Sunday morning from a FS [Forest Service] cop that I know. You got one up here as there was a crowd forming. Several guys had stopped and taken a shot at him already,” wrote Pinching. The big, black male wolf stood in the trap, some 300-350 yards from the road, wounded-the shots left him surrounded by blood-stained snow. Pinching concluded his first post, “Male that went right at 100 pounds. No rub spots on the hide, and he will make me a good wall hanger.” Read more.
Idaho proposes $2M wolf control fund, January 6, 2014. A new $2million wolf control fund is among Gov. Butch Otter's proposals for the coming year. The state funding would be one-time, and legislation would call for the state's cattle industry and sportsmen also to contribute to the fund. "One form of growth we don't want to encourage is in the wolf population that was imposed on Idaho almost 20 years ago," Otter declared. "With your unflinching support, we were able to fight through the opposition of those who would make Idaho into a restricted-use wildlife refuge and take back control of these predators from our federal landlords." Spokesman Review
Hunter organization to pay $500 for each trapped Idaho wolf, January 3, 2014. The hunters behind the little-known Foundation for Wildlife Management know three things about trapping wolves. First, it is a much more effective wolf management tool than hunting. Wolf hunters have a success rate of less than one percent, while trappers enjoy a success rate near 25 percent. Second, wolf trapping is time consuming and expensive. Read more.
Feds push to end endangered protection for gray wolves ignites opposition, November 20, 2013 - Federal authorities in charge of saving wolves from extinction ignited outrage Tuesday when they made their case to end protection for wolves. Read more.
Who dares confront the anti-wolf mob?, October 29, 2013 - Just for the sake of argument, pretend that instead of this being 2013, it is 1963. And suppose for a moment that our tri-state region is Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, not Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Read more.
Sorry, but wolf slaughter is not American, October 28, 2013 - “Fed Up in Wyoming” reads the caption under this stunning photograph posted on a hunter’s Facebook page. The photo is yet more evidence that, two years after political reactionaries led a successful campaign in the House of Representatives and then the Senate to remove the North Rocky Mountain gray wolf from the endangered species list, the slaughter of wolves continues to escalate as wolf hunters fall deeper in their paranoid fantasy that the wolf represents a liberal conspiracy against rural communities. Read more.
Dead wolf display was an act of hate, October 16, 2013 - Two stories have dominated Jackson’s environmental news this past week. The stories invite us to question the different characteristics, personalities, life experiences, attitudes, beliefs and values that cause individuals to act the way they do.Read more.
Defazio applauds decision to restart review of gray wolf delisting September 30, 2013 - Today, Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee Peter DeFazio (D-OR) applauded a recent decision by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to restart the peer review process for the proposed delisting of gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Read more.
Why are the feds giving up on wolf recovery in California, September 29, 2013 - Ten years ago, the idea of gray wolves in California was a faraway dream. At the time, there were fewer than 1,000 wolves across the entire Western United States - most of them safely tucked away in the forests of central Idaho, northwest Montana and Yellowstone National Park. Read more.
Don’t Roll Back Federal Protections for Wolves, September 17, 2013 - As Washington state lawmakers and wildlife managers fine-tune the state’s wolf conservation and management plan, they need only look to the nation’s capital for some tips on what not to do. Read more.
Wolves Under Review, August 15, 2013 - In June the Fish & Wildlife Service prematurely proposed to end federal protection for gray wolves in the lower 48 states in the belief that wolves had fully recovered from near eradication in the early 20th century. This was politics masquerading as science. Read more.
Feds Accused of Purging Independent Gray Wolf Panel, August 9, 2013 - Federal officials apparently ordered a purge of an independent science panel tasked with reviewing whether gray wolves should come off the Endangered Species List, a move the federal government supports. Read more.
Should Wolves Stay Protected Under Endangered Species Act?, July 18, 2013 - On June 13 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposal to remove Endangered Species Act protection for all wolves in the contiguous states save about 75 of the Mexican subspecies in Arizona and New Mexico. There’s now a 90-day public comment period, and the service is being torn apart like a geriatric moose. Read more.
70 Percent of Voters Value Wolves as Vital to America’s Wilderness, Heritage, July 17, 2013 - A new national poll finds that 70 percent of voters believe wolves are a vital part of America’s wilderness and natural heritage and only 1 in 3 support the Obama administration’s proposal to strip Endangered Species Act protection from wolves in the lower 48 states. The poll also finds that 56 percent say wolves should be given a chance to return to unoccupied wolf habitat in places like Colorado, California and the Northeast. Read more.
Politics Dominated Wolf Delisting Meetings, June 27, 2013 - The federal government’s plan to remove the gray wolf from the protections of the Endangered Species Act was hammered out through political bargaining with affected states, according to documents obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Read more.
Is The Far Right Driving Wolves To Extinction?, June 25, 2013 - The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent announcement that it is beginning the process for removing gray wolves across the country from the protection of the Endangered Species Act surprised no one. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s mid-1990s reintroduction of gray wolves - a species virtually extirpated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho marked a triumph for conservationists and ranks as one of the most striking fulfillment’s of the Endangered Species Act. But as I have reported here and here, the wolves quickly met enemies. Read more.
Man vs Wolf, June 20, 2013 - Robert Roman cradles a pale wolf skull in his upturned palm. He does not hate wolves, he says, gripping the hollow eye sockets and turning the bleached bone in his hands. Perhaps God just built the wolf too well. Read more.
Grey Wolves Need Time. Recovery Has Been Robust But It’s Not Yet Complete, June 12, 2013 - The federal government should abandon its premature plan to remove endangered species protections for gray wolves in the lower 48 states - including Oregon, where the apex predator’s numbers have yet to reach sustainable levels. Read more.
Value of Wolves, Feds Must Maintain Some Oversight, June 10, 2013 - The image of the government declaring “Mission Accomplished” is etched in Americans’ minds, and not in a good way. Just as former President George W. Bush was wrong when he made that announcement about the Iraq war, the feds might well be wrong in declaring the gray wolf no longer in need of protection in the West. Read more.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Move Forward With Proposed Delisting, June 10, 2013 - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday it plans to stop protecting the gray wolf and put the states in charge of managing these predators. But the plan is already facing some tough opposition from wolf advocate groups that say it’s too early for this discussion. Read more.
Don’t Forsake the Gray Wolf, June 7, 2013 - It has been celebrated as one of the great victories of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. After several decades of federal protection, gray wolves - once nearly wiped out in the continental United States - have reached a population of roughly 6,100 across three Great Lakes states and seven Western states. Read more.
National Grey Wolf Delisting Delayed, May 22, 2013 - The Obama Administration’s plan to remove the gray wolf from the protections of the Endangered Species Act, as detailed in a draft Federal Register notice released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, is temporarily on hold. Read more.
Wolf Slaughter Continues in the Rocky Mountains, January 31, 2013 - Lynne Stone, longtime wolf advocate and executive director of central Idaho’s Boulder White Clouds Council in Ketchum, couldn’t help but laugh. For the last two years she has routinely petitioned the Idaho Dept of Fish and Game for every single “ Big Game Mortality Report” filed on wolves killed by hunters - several hundred of them since the animals lost Endangered Species Act protection. Hunters and trappers are required to send in the report along with the skull and pelt for examination. In mid-January Stone ran across a November 2012 report that stated, “DNA came back as a domestic dog,” a light-skinned one. Read more.
Wolf Torture and Execution Continues in the Northern Rockies,March 28, 2012 - On March 16, a Friday, a US Forest Service employee from Grangeville, Idaho, laid out his wolf traps. The following Monday, using the name “Pinching,” he posted his story and pictures on www.Trapperman.com . “I got a call on Sunday morning from a FS [Forest Service] cop that I know. You got one up here as there was a crowd forming. Several guys had stopped and taken a shot at him already,” wrote Pinching. The big, black male wolf stood in the trap, some 300-350 yards from the road, wounded-the shots left him surrounded by blood-stained snow. Pinching concluded his first post, “Male that went right at 100 pounds. No rub spots on the hide, and he will make me a good wall hanger.” Read more.