The long winter has had an effect on ungulate populations in Idaho so hunting permits, especially moose permits, will be reduced so as not to effect the populations as much for the coming winter.
Winter Kill in Idaho
KPVI TV – Pocatello, Idaho
Be Sure to watch the attached video as well as it contains more information than is in the article.
Dale Toweill, Fish & Game Wildlife Manager: “This has been an unusual year. The winter was not especially tough. The problem with over winter survival is more how long the winter lasts.”
This is a story which follows an IDFG press release from June 2.
Comments
Regardless of what that article states, we all know the real reason for the decline in hunting permits is all those wolves running around.
Right?
The drought and the long winter have little effect, it’s solely the wolves, they have eaten all the wildlife!
There, I beat the anti-wolf crowd to it.
Long difficult winters can have a dramatic effect on wildlife populations. Last real winter we have had in the west was the winter of 96/97, before this year. Predators, including wolves, will have an impact to what extent the prey populations recover. Common sense.
Smoky . . . LOL. It is hard to make a joke in print and have people get it! . . and I am beginning to think that there is no such thing as common sense because we only see such a little picture of the whole at any one time. . sort of like the parable of the three blind men feeling an elephant . .each had a different idea of what an elephant was based on what part they felt. Wildlife populations have tip the balance in different directions in order for their to be overall order. . I just saw a scrub jay eat robin eggs out of the nest outside my window. It is real easy to be horrified for the robin parents without understanding the whole picture . . who can say whether my backyard needed those robin babies. Maybe too many robins causes the earth to be poor on earth worms and for the microbes to take over and make the soil less suitable for certain plants to flourish, thereby depriving another animal of food. That is a simplistic example for sure but it applies to the prey/predator debate. WE can’t have common sense because we just don’t know enough. I hope people can see their way clear to let wolves be for a while so we can find out more about the way the whole thing works.
“WE can’t have common sense because we just don’t know enough. I hope people can see their way clear to let wolves be for a while so we can find out more about the way the whole thing works.”
I’ll put Linda down as opposed to wolf management……..at least for now.
How about you Smokey? Do you agree with Linda?
A factor that most Idahoans are unaware of, is that Idaho Power Company used silver iodide generators up until Jan 1, 2008 to increase the Idaho snow pack this year. Their own web page says they increase precipitation each year by 10-15% with such generators. Idaho deer,moose and elk having a hard time with deep snow? Thank your local power company.
Moose have taken it on the nose as a preferred prey of wolves previous of this winter.. The delines have been on posted in IDFG website for the last few years population census and studies. They face a host of other issues including diseases from whitetail deer, etc so to soley blame it on wolves is a stretch, but they wont be good for the already small populations that exist in the west.
I should preface that comment with certain units.