How many times did we say Idaho Fish and Game’s 500 wolves plan was meaningless in the face of the legislature? House Concurrent Resolution 43, now before the Idaho Legislature says that “existing conditions relating to wolves define an emergency condition for all rural Idahoans and, in the face of this emergency, the Legislature encourages…
Hope for the future with plans to reduce “controls” for livestock depredations? High mortality for the small population of Mexican wolves continued this year with the population again ending at about 50 wolves. Under new management plans it is hoped that government wolf removal for killing livestock will abate. Another deadly year for Mexican wolf.…
Here is the longer story from the Mountain Express about the killing of the Basin Butte Pack near Stanley. Livestock do not winter in the Sawtooth Valley so there was no imminent danger of livestock losses. This was a revenge killing. On public lands allotments there are no mandatory terms and conditions requiring livestock permittees…
Obama asked for executive order- This is clearly something the President could do quickly to rehabilitate his tarnished image on wildlife. Ironically, it was President Richard Nixon who in 1972 issued Executive Order 11643 banning the use of poisons to control predators on Federal land. Reagan later weakened this. In addition, there is plenty of…
27 % decline in 2008 will be followed by another decline in ’09- At the end of 2007 there were 171 wolves that lived primarily inside Yellowstone Park, but very high pup mortality due to disease (distemper) along with the natural attrition of adult and sub-adult wolves caused a 27% decline (124 wolves). Disease had…
Wolf expert trapper, shooter, advocate, manager Carter Niemeyer writes special essay for this blog- How many wolves will hunters kill in Idaho in the upcoming wolf season? Copyright © Carter Niemeyer We can all speculate on the number of wolves that hunters may kill if a wolf hunting season happens in Idaho, but the outcome…
On the Mexican wolf recovery program- “The [Mexican] wolves will go extinct,” Michael Robinson, conservation advocate with the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, says. “If the program is continued exactly the way it is now, these wolves will go extinct.” – – – – – In my view the federal government’s Mexican Wolf Recovery program…
314 livestock were lost to wolves last year. Between 5000 and 10,000 head lost to other predators- This feature ran on a number of radio stations. Non lethal management of wolves, which keeps both wolves and livestock alive is feasible. However, most livestock operators are not like Mike Stevens (see in story) because the U.S.…
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.