Facts show wolves to blame for low elk numbers

This is provided in response to my friend Larry Book’s letter blaming the Idaho Department of Fish & Game for the lack of elk.

I, too, have been a lifelong elk hunter and supporter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and I disagree with his assertions.

Wolves in the Rocky Mountain Recovery Area (Montana, Wyoming and Idaho) recovered, according to federal standards sometime between 2000 and 2002. Defenders of Wildlife, The Humane Society of the United States, The Center for Biological Diversity and many other environmental organizations filed federal lawsuits which prevented wolf delisting. It took congressional intervention and a rider attached to the U.S. federal budget to trump the Endangered Species Act, which has been hijacked by these same so-called environmental organizations, to return the management of wolves to Idaho and Montana.

Does Idaho have a wolf problem as the Mike Muscha editorial suggested? You bet it does! Jim Hayden, the Panhandle IDFG regional biologist stated in the summer 2013 Sandpoint Magazine, that this region alone has a conservative estimate of 24 packs of wolves number between 160 to 290 individual animals. The federal requirement for recovery under the ESA was 100 wolves and 15 packs for the entire state. Doesn’t this suggest that this region (Panhandle) has more than its fair share of the state’s wolves? If we have eight to 10 times the Panhandle’s share how many wolves do you think are running around the six other IDFG regions of Idaho?

According to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologists, each wolf eats 16-30 elk per year. What good is habitat if wolves are eating our deer, elk and moose faster than they can reproduce?

Bottom line is Idaho has too many wolves and the only legal method of reducing their numbers is with hunting and trapping. In the Panhandle, from September 2013 to Feb. 18, 2014, 82 wolves have been legally harvested by hunters and trappers. Seems reasonable to assume that 80 wolves times the 20 elk that each wolf would have turned into wolf scat equals about 1,600 elk that hunters and trappers have saved for the Panhandle alone. I’d say this suggests hunters and trappers are seriously concerned about what is transpiring and doing something about it.

If IDFG is serious about wolf reduction, they need to continue to open the toolbox, providing sensible rules that will allow hunters and trappers the latitude they need to allow our elk and moose numbers to recover. Only then can the habitat that Larry wants his dollars to support make sense. I believe that, in the short term, I’ll contribute my dollars to those favoring wolf reduction.

Pete Thompson served as an Idaho Department of Fish & Game commissioner from 1972 to 1984.