Ranchers Stall State’s Wolf Proposal

At the Idaho Cattle Association’s request, a legislative committee refused Tuesday to adopt an Idaho plan to manage endangered gray wolves being released into central Idaho.

Instead, the House Resources and Conservation Committee voted 15-3 to draw up a new proposal for state wolf management with provisions that a federal official says will be unacceptable to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Ed Bangs, manager of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf reintroduction project, said although final decisions have not been made, that probably means the government will sign a contract with the Nez Perce Indian Tribe to supervise the wolf project and the state will take no part in it.

Four endangered wolves were released into the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness last weekend, and Bangs told legislators more wolves would be sent to the state Thursday and Friday.

The goal is to build 10 packs totaling about 100 wolves by 2002, Bangs said. But cattlemen and others continued their long battle Tuesday to stop the project and get wolves removed.

Idaho has been working since early last year on a state wolf management plan, but it has been blocked by livestock interests.

Ted Hoffman, representing the cattle association, told lawmakers if the state adopts a wolf plan it will hurt lawsuits filed against reintroduction.

“It certainly cuts state ability to consider legal options available to them,” he said.

But if there is a state plan, Hoffman said it must include a provision that the federal government will pay stockmen for any animals killed by wolves, and another that attacks on dogs or “guard animals” is justification for shooting the predators.

Bangs said the federal government has been telling Idaho officials for months that such provisions are unacceptable. He said ranchers often use dogs to track and kill wolves, and allowing wolves to be killed if they attack dogs is “subject to abuse.”

The American Farm Bureau and Mountain States Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit attempting to block wolf reintroduction, but lost a bid for an injunction.