30 More Wolves Coming Donations Partially Make Up For Congressional Cutbacks

With donations of cash, equipment and labor partially making up for congressional cuts, more wolves will be captured in Canada this winter and relocated to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, program sponsors say.

“We’re planning on doing it again and basically replicating what we did last year,” said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Plans now call for about 30 wolves to be captured in Canada in January, the same target number as last year. About half will be taken to Yellowstone, where they will be held in pens for several weeks before release. The others will be released immediately in central Idaho.

Congressional opponents, led by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., attempted to scuttle the program by cutting its 1996 budget from $600,000 to $400,000.

But Bangs said three private groups - Defenders of Wildlife, the Idaho Wolf Education and Research Center and the Yellowstone Natural History Association - are donating $40,000, Bangs said. That is enough to find areas in British Columbia where wolves can be captured without harming populations there, Bangs said.

The British Columbia government is donating staff time, Bangs said. In addition, makers of radio tracking collars are offering a 30 percent discount, a camera company has donated equipment and a truck has been given to the National Park Service.

“Everybody’s kicking in a little bit here and there,” Bangs said.

That does not mean the budget cuts have no impact. Bangs said the wolf program has been cut from five people to two. Losses include Steve Fritts, whom Bangs called “one of the world’s foremost experts on wolves.”

Fritts is being transferred to Denver, where his duties remain unclear, Bangs said.

But because Fish and Wildlife “took the pain internally,” Bangs said, enough money remains in the budget to help fund state programs when they take over wolf management programs in future months.

He said bringing more wolves south this winter will save money eventually, by allowing wolves to be removed from the endangered species list more quickly.

“If you want to save money in the long run, reintroduction is the cheapest, fastest, most effective way to recovery,” Bangs said.

The success of last year’s reintroduction surprised almost everybody.

None of the wolves in Yellowstone or Idaho has made any confirmed livestock kills yet, the biggest expressed fear of wolf opponents. And the wolves have stayed primarily in wild areas.

Plus, nine pups were born to the Yellowstone wolves, all of them survived, and the Idaho wolves are pairing off, raising hopes for pups there in the spring.

“It’s gone better than I ever hoped,” Bangs said.

If this winter’s work is as successful as last year’s, it probably will be the last reintroduction, Bangs said. “We may be done in two years. We’re so far ahead of schedule.”