Idaho Wolf Plan May Be Futile Sponsors Say Government Won’t Accept State’s Terms

After much argument, a committee of the Idaho Legislature finally has approved a state plan for management of the endangered wolves being reintroduced to a central Idaho wilderness area.

But it may be a waste of time because even sponsors say the federal government won’t accept terms laid down by the Legislature.

The House Resources and Conservation Committee’s vote Thursday marked the fourth time in the legislative session’s first nine days the wolf plan was under discussion.

Four Canadian gray wolves were released in Idaho last weekend in an attempt to re-establish wolves in an area where they thrived until they were eradicated in the 1920s and 1930s.

The state won’t be allowed to supervise the project and monitor the wolves without a plan. Idaho livestock interests, who oppose wolf reintroduction, until Thursday blocked months of efforts to adopt a state plan.

Rep. Jim Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint, won approval for a new plan, but even he conceded it won’t be acceptable to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“It will be offered and I presume it will be rejected by the feds,” he told the House Resource and Conservation Committee. “Then we can start dickering.”

Ed Bangs, wolf project manager for the government, said earlier this week that if the state added a provision that requires federal payment for any livestock killed or other damage caused by transplanted wolves, it will not be acceptable.

That was a provision approved by the committee Thursday, along with a requirement that Idaho participation in the wolf plan stop immediately if federal funding were pulled.

Rep. Ken Robison, D-Boise, called it an “exercise in futility” that would guarantee the state could not participate in monitoring the wolf project.

Committee members voted to send the measure to the full House for a final vote. But some committee members wanted to delay it until Jan. 27, the day after a congressional hearing sponsored by Rep. Helen Chenoweth of Idaho on the wolf project.

“I don’t care what you do with it, because it’s immaterial anyway,” said committee Chairman Golden Linford, R-Rexburg.

The bill won’t come up for a final vote until at least Jan. 27.