Go wolf-viewing while you can

While hiking near the Montana-Idaho border last summer, my family had a fascinating 30-second close encounter with a pack of wolves. My wife and daughter ranked it as the “greatest outdoor moment” in their lives.

That’s coming from a family that’s had more great outdoor experiences than we can remember.

Last Friday’s delisting of wolves from Endangered Species Act protection makes 2008 the last of the best summers to hike in wolf country.

Make a special effort to spend time where wolf packs have established, such as along the Stateline Trail and the Five Lakes Butte region of Idaho south of Superior, Mont.

Wolves are smart. Once the bullets start flying in state-managed hunting seasons this fall, wolves are not going to stand around and give your family the close look we enjoyed last summer.

Black eye: Wolf management will spur considerable debate over the next few years now that authority has been transferred from the federal government to the states. But the current outcry from the extreme anti-wolf crowd, such as saveourelk.org, is an embarrassment to the ranks of sportsmen.

They’re writing letters to the editor’s of the region’s newspapers displaying their ignorance of wildlife management and leaving their arguments easy prey to be shot down by the other end of the spectrum, including people who don’t want wolves hunted or managed at all.

Besides spreading myths, saveourelk.org also is spreading false hopes with a campaign for an initiative calling for all wolves to be removed from Idaho.

If they were to succeed in getting that initiative on the fall ballot (unlikely) and if it were to pass (even more unlikely), the Endangered Species Act protections would be triggered again and the management authority would go back to the federal government.

No hunting or other state management would be allowed.

Eye on PDO County: A rumor floating around the recent Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show suggested that hunting license sales were spiking in Pend Oreille County this spring.

Possible reason: Travis Feldner, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife enforcement officer, has begun patrolling the county’s backroads, filling a position vacant since July.

A few sportsmen are said to be boning up on hunting and fishing rules they may have forgotten in the past year.

True to the end: Two notable class acts were working the state wildlife agency booths at the Bighorn Show.

Steve Zender, the Fish and Wildlife Department district wildlife biologist for northeastern Washington, was answering sportsmen’s questions on everything from turkey hunting to the impact of winterkill on deer in Stevens and Pend Oreille counties. He had every reason to stay home in Chewelah, since he’s retiring in the middle of April.

Even more remarkable, perhaps, was the performance of Ned Horner, Idaho Fish and Game Department regional fisheries manager, who was explaining new Coeur d’Alene River fisheries management rules all the way through the last minutes before his retirement kicked in.

Gobble, gobble: Two wild turkey hunting clinics, taught by experienced local hunters, are perfectly timed to brush up hunter skills before the region’s general turkey seasons open. The free clinics are scheduled:

•Today, with Dave Murphy of Primos calls, 6 p.m. at The General Store.

•April 11, with local hunters Art Meikel and Leonard Wolf, 6 p.m. at Sportsman’s Warehouse in Spokane Valley.

Sprague comes alive: The first plants of small rainbows have been planted in Sprague Lake, but the bigger triploid trout that will attract the first anglers since last fall’s rehabilitation won’t be stocked until later this month. Bass, bluegills, crappies and channel catfish will be stocked in early May.

Clearing Clark Fork: The sediment from last Friday’s breaching of Milltown Dam continues to foul the Clark Fork down through St. Regis, where there’s about a foot of visibility. Not a big loss to anglers this week as unusually cold temperatures have thwarted most hatches.

But the word from Missoula is that the waters are starting to clear up through the dam site.

Double jeopardy: While Oregon and California are applying for disaster relief because of faltering salmon runs, the Humane Society of the United States has nothing better to do than file a lawsuit to postpone the selective control of sea lions that are ambushing endangered salmon as they try to move over Bonneville Dam.

HSUS is highly successful at boosting its fund-raising by targeting emotional issues such as the killing of sea lions and hound hunting for cougars. Yet the organization does nearly nothing with all of that fundraising to boost the habitat or solve the issues sportsmen and wildlife managers must address.

Don’t be misled: The Humane Society of the United States, which has been given poor grades in philanthropic ratings, is not the same as The American Humane Association, which does the great and thankless service of managing animal shelters.