News on the homefront this morning is that a new pack of wolves has been recorded in Wyoming where only the occasional wolf passed through before. A central Wyoming outfitter has shared footage he took while hunting the Medicine Bow National Forest last fall. If this is a trend that continues, one of the last remaining wolf free National Forests in Wyoming will be home to Canis Lupus.
The Medicine Bow National Forest lies extremely close to Wyoming’s largest population hub and butts up against the now wolf-reintroducing state of Colorado. Wolves here are most likely an inevitability and the popular hunting units that lie within its borders are sure to suffer from the lack of game that units in the northernwestern portion of the state have been enduring for the past decade or more. This is to say nothing of the impact a burgeoning wolf population will have on livestock producers in the region.
Speaking of livestock producers and wolves; Idaho has just moved a bill from its Senate to its House that would expand the harvest of wolves across the state on private property. Senate Bill 1211 proposed to nix the 15-wolf tag limit in place and extend wolf trapping season on private property year around. The bill still has to make it through the House before it would arrive on the Governor’s desk, so there are hurdles yet in play but if passed SB 1211 has the potential to shake things up for wolves in the Gem State. That said, there is still a minimum number of wolves that Idaho must maintain or the risk losing management to the Feds.
One thing is for sure and certain, the wolf debate is increasing in both scope and intensity… the only question remaining… is there any middle ground left when it comes to wolves in the West?
For more information https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article250850629.html?fbclid=IwAR2MTtHuE32A1JXz6CEqDs8o-09xMywh9rIK8IVCFE4ed-uMGfyrtW9tkG8
4 comments
It is pretty simple, GOOD SENSIBLE WOLF MANAGEMENT. Check out Idaho the wolves have not been managed well in many areas of the state and have hurt game numbers for years.
Idaho allowed 15 wolf tags per hunter and that wasn’t enough to control them. Of course killing a wolf with a gun is as likely as killing a cat without dogs. Guna be difficult to play catch up and bring them back down to feds minimum number, like they have a clue what that number should be. ZERO.
Washington state paid $1.6 million on their wolves in 2020 for Damages and other reasons. They aren’t even allowed to be hunted. Their last survey shows they are 60 wolves over their required mandate from feds. These are only the ones that they actually seen. They estimate they miss 12% of actual population. Add another 20 then. Puts them at close to 210 wolves in the state of Washington.
Elk and moose herds are dwindling to where they reduced the tag quotas for the conservationists to nothing and blame it on shed hunters. That’s like blaming the water for getting warmer and not the dam.
Every state that is reintroducing these creatures be ready for some tough hunting. You will find the wolves can track the herd much better than any human. Day after day cutting and chasing track only to find wolf prints already been there. Nothing worse than boot tracks until you cut wolf track after wolf track.
There should be no wolves period anywhere. The Feds are full of it. Leave the animals for us to manage. Wolves are an unmanageable apex predator, people are ignorantly following “management” systems that require wolves. Allow men to manage game animals—people are the perfect apex predator, are able to reasoned with, and will not overkill following a hard winter. This entire wolf experiment is literally the stuff of nightmares.
Triple S, shoot shovel silence. Solves the problem. yeah, yeah, I know but our ancestors had good and sufficient reason for exterminating them back then. Time to do it again.