People should learn about wolves before howling

The human love-hate relationship with predators will bring out the best and worst of us in the next few months.

Idaho and Washington are working on management plans for gray wolves, which will soon come off the federal endangered species list.

In some circles, the neck hair is already bristling.

Fear and ignorance about wolves are tempting because neither requires any effort.

Researching facts, busting myths and seeking consensus demand tedious work.

Which camp are you in?

Washington has appointed 18 people representing a spectrum of viewpoints on wolf recovery to a “working group” charged with hammering out proposals to deal with wolves as they naturally trickle into the state from Idaho, Montana and Canada.

Four of those members from the Spokane region reported on their progress Tuesday night. They savored the learners and bucked up to the ranters among the 100 or so people who braved nasty weather to attend the program at the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council auditorium.

The working group must operate within distinct parameters. Washington has no plans to capture and bring wolves into the state, but laws won’t allow the state to kill wolves as they come across the border.

The working group is debating how many breeding pairs will be allowed to form in Washington – 12 to 15 perhaps – before the species is removed from state endangered species protections so the populations can be “controlled” in one way or another.

Special permit hunting is a possibility.

A key component of the plan, essential for maintaining local tolerance for wolves, will be finding funds to compensate farmers for stock killed by wolves. When wolves were reintroduced to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming in the 1990s, the Defenders of Wildlife pledged to pay for livestock losses. That service program will end when the gray wolf is removed from the federal endangered list.

“Personally, I’d rather see a hunter take an animal as opposed to a predator,” said Duane Cocking, group member representing Safari Club International. “Being a hunter, I’d prefer not to see wolves in Washington. But that’s not an option. They’re coming.”

Cocking said he’s found out more about wolves than he’d imagined since being appointed to the group a year ago. At least one revelation has given him some peace.

“Overall, statewide, they’re not going to be a significant problem if we can keep their numbers down,” he said.

Representatives of conservation groups, cattlemen and loggers are on the working group, but sportsmen can be particularly proud to be represented by Tommy Petrie, a serious and successful elk hunter and president of the Pend Oreille County Sportsmen’s Club.

“Before starting, I read six wildlife biology-type books to try to educate myself beyond what I already know from hunting archery seasons in Idaho where wolves have been established for a long time,” he said, noting that he has catalogued more than 400 books in his personal hunting and wildlife library.

Petrie also has documented wolves in Pend Oreille County with photos and by snowshoeing into areas where he’s found their tracks and kills.

“I’m not making excuses for wolves – they’re not out there eating Alpo – but there’s no evidence that they would devastate big-game populations,” he said.

Wolves will change elk behavior, he said. “Hunters have to adapt, too.”

Petrie said he’s been bowhunting elk in Idaho’s St. Joe region since the early ‘90s with a group of hunters that always used to find elk in each of six drainages they covered.

“After the wolves moved in, we could go to two drainages and not find any elk sign, but then we might find a ton of elk in the third drainage.”

Even though hot bulls will stop bugling when they sense wolves are near, Petrie said his group continues to have great elk-hunting success.

Indeed, Idaho’s aerial surveys have documented that elk herds are stronger than ever in the Salmon Region, where some hunters complain that wolves have decimated the elk.

“We’ve already screwed up all sorts of things with human-caused changes to wildlife habitat, and wolves will simply have to be managed just like everything else,” Petrie said. “The sooner we get to it, the better off we’ll all be, including the wolves.”

Reality check: Stevens County Commissioner Tony Delgado, in a recent opinion piece in the Chewelah Independent newspaper on wolf recovery, said, “The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife should be prepared to compensate the citizens of Stevens County in the amount of $1 million for loss of pets and livestock, and another $1 million for economic loss to the county.”

Delgado offered no basis for the claim, but perhaps he’ll follow up at the region’s next wolf-related event, which he announced in his piece: The Stevens County Cattleman’s Association’s Wolf Awareness meeting starting at 1 p.m. Jan. 19 at the Colville Fairgrounds Ag Trade Building.

Delgado said he’s concerned about the impact wolves might have on big game.

If that’s the case, state taxpayers who would be forking over a couple of million to Stevens County may want to ponder:

“Why does the county have no leash law to prevent the well-known problem with dogs harassing deer and other wildlife?

“Why is the county opening its roads to ATVs, which will encourage motorized forest travel that has been proved to lead to reductions in bull elk and buck deer?