Topics
Wolves
Summary
Few wildlife conservation efforts have been as controversial as that of the grey wolf in the Northern Rockies. Federal efforts to protect the wolf have clashed with state efforts to control wolf populations and protect livestock and game from predation by wolf packs.
Idaho and Montana have been given federal authority to manage wolf numbers using public hunts. Federal officials require Idaho to maintain a population of at least 150 wolves and 10 breeding pairs.
Idaho wildlife officials have boosted bag limits, expanded trapping and extended hunting seasons in some areas to help further reduce wolf populations in all corners of the state. Its 10-month wolf season runs until June.
Idaho’s wolf managers estimated 500 to 600 wolves roamed the state as of spring 2012, down from the more than 1,000 when the 2011 hunting season opened in August.
Hunters and trappers killed 364 wolves since the 2011 season opened, while dozens more wolves have died of natural causes or been killed for preying on livestock or targeted as part of a strategy to lessen impacts on specific elk herds in the state.
A federal appeals court in March rejected a lawsuit from conservation groups that wanted to block wolf hunts across the Northern Rockies. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Congress had the right to intervene when it stripped protections from wolves in spring 2011.
Lawmakers stepped in after court rulings kept wolves on the endangered list for years after they reached recovery goals. Wildlife advocates claimed in their lawsuit that Congress violated the separation of powers by interfering with the courts. But the court said Congress was within its rights, and that lawmakers had appropriately amended the Endangered Species Act to deal with Northern Rockies wolves.
There are more than 1,700 wolves in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and expanding populations in portions of Eastern Washington and northeastern Oregon. Wolf hunting could resume in Wyoming this fall.
In parts of Montana, ranchers and local officials frustrated with continuing attacks on livestock have proposed bounties for hunters that kill wolves. Montana wildlife officials said they will consider ways to expand hunting after 166 wolves were killed this season, short of the state’s 220-wolf quota.
Wolves once thrived across North America but were exterminated across most of the continental U.S. by the 1930s, through government sponsored poisoning and bounty programs.
Wolves were put on the endangered list in 1974. Over the last two decades, state and federal agencies have spent more than $100 million on wolf restoration programs across the country. There are more than 4,500 of the animals in the upper Great Lakes and a struggling population of several dozen wolves in the Desert Southwest.
Prior lawsuits resulted first in the animals’ reintroduction to the Northern Rockies and then later kept them on the endangered list for a decade after the species reached recovery goal of 300 wolves in three states.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is monitoring the hunts. But agency officials have said they have no plans to intervene because the states have pledged to manage wolves responsibly.
Federal officials have pledged to step in to restore endangered species protections if wolf numbers drop to less than 100 animals in either Montana or Idaho.
Even without hunting, wolves are shot regularly in the region in response to livestock attacks. Since their reintroduction, more than 1,600 wolves have been shot by government wildlife agents or ranchers.
Latest updates in this topic
-
Wolf attacks on livestock investigated as researcher plans to sue WSU
June 14, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Photo: Wolf roams Mount Spokane State Park ski area
June 13, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Wolf pack appears to be sniffing out territory in Western Washington
June 8, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Washington sets new gray wolf conflict protocols, requires deterrents
June 2, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Reward upped in Yellowstone white wolf death
May 31, 2017 in Huckleberries Online -
Yellowstone white wolf was shot; $5,000 reward offered
May 12, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Conservation groups move to halt wildlife killing by feds
May 11, 2017 in Eye On Boiseby Betsy Russell
-
Inslee signs bill protecting personal information in cases related to wolf attacks
May 8, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Game cam photos compare wolf-coyote differences
April 6, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Tracks indicate more hungry critters hunting for food this week
April 6, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
WSU researcher: State should deny lethal wolf control to ranchers who don’t sign prevention pact
March 27, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
New wolf ‘pack’ could spell more pressure on Blue Mountains big-game
March 22, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Wolf expansion continues at nearly 30 percent a year in Washington
March 17, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
A few outdoors-related bills still alive in Washington Legislature
March 13, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Oregon wolves reach milestone: 8 breeding pairs
March 8, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Wolf-control fund gets another $400,000, after lawmaker argues it needs ‘little bit of slush fund’
March 8, 2017 in Eye On Boiseby Betsy Russell
-
Wolves are back, thriving; Spending millions no longer necessary
March 7, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
BLM settles suit on wolf hunting contest permits
February 24, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Yellowstone cougars hang tough despite wolf impacts on elk
February 21, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Legislation would protect private info in wolf attack cases
February 20, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Impact of wolves on elk, deer, cougars studied in predator-prey research
February 15, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Wolf control board reports its cost per wolf killed is dropping, population ‘stabilizing’
February 15, 2017 in Eye On Boiseby Betsy Russell
-
Lawsuit could make wolf management even more costly in Idaho
February 14, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Environmental groups seek halt to wolf killing in Idaho
February 14, 2017 in Eye On Boiseby Betsy Russell
-
Hunting of ‘problem’ wolves proposed in Oregon
February 13, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Judge orders Idaho to destroy elk and wolf wilderness data
January 19, 2017 in Eye On Boiseby Betsy Russell
-
Pack horse left for dead survives 6 wintry weeks in Wyoming forest
January 19, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Court: Forest Service illegally allowed helicopter in wilderness for wolf collaring
January 19, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Profanity Peak wolf pack removal cost state $135K
January 13, 2017 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Mama moose kicks butt on wolf
December 5, 2016 in Outdoors blogby Rich Landers
-
Collared wolf dead, 3 others survive in Idaho wilderness
November 2, 2016 in Eye On Boiseby Betsy Russell
-
Oregon man sentenced for poisoning wolf in Idaho wilderness, also killing dog
October 17, 2016 in Eye On Boiseby Betsy Russell