The Wolf Preservation Blog

“The gray wolf, soon to be off the endangered species list in Wyoming, will have a new official title in 86 percent of the state: predator. That means anyone may shoot a wolf on sight, no permit required.

Safe havens do remain in the northwestern corner of the state — no hunting will be allowed in Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks — but now conservationists worry that sportsmen will be allowed to take aim at wolves traveling through the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, a 24,000-acre area that connects the two larger parks.

The state of Wyoming wants hunting; the National Park Service does not.

“We want to preserve wildlife for viewing and for conservation,” said Bert Frost, associate director for Natural Resource Stewardship and Science for the National Park Service. “We would prefer not to have them shooting wolves on the parkway.”

But here’s the catch: The parkway, managed by the National Park Service, has allowed elk hunts to reduce their population. Legislators in Wyoming say that means wolves are also fair game.

Most agree this is a somewhat symbolic argument, as only one or two wolf packs use the parkway. But for many, the gray wolf has come to embody the symbol of the federal government meddling in state affairs.

Poll: Should wolves be hunted on National Parks land in Wyoming?

Among the comments submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the Endangered Species Act, was one from Earl Crawford, a Cheyenne resident, who said, according to the Casper Star-Tribune, “wolves kill to just kill.”

Crawford continued: “Let the state game & fish control and manage the wolf population along with the other game animals of the state. Most bureaucrats back East haven’t the foggiest idea of how life is out west.”

1995: Wolves return to the Rockies
In the early 1900s, bounties were paid on more than 20,000 wolves, viewed then as killers of livestock. Twenty years later, the gray wolf became extinct in the Northern Rockies.

In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arranged for 66 gray wolves from Canada to be released in Yellowstone and Idaho. The wolves, to the delight of conservationists, repopulated as quickly as they disappeared. Now about 1,650 roam the Rockies.

“The big picture of the whole thing is that the recovery of the gray wolf is one of the most amazing success stories of the Endangered Species Act,” said Derek Goldman of the Endangered Species Coalition.

The plan was so successful that in 2009 the gray wolf was removed from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho. Wyoming, however, refused to produce a wolf-friendly plan.

“Basically, Wyoming flipped the middle finger to the federal government,” Goldman said.

Despite government promises to repay ranchers for livestock losses, pressure mounted.

Data show that domestic dogs kill more cattle than wolves; weather kills cattle at 25 times the rate of wolves. Mike Jimenez of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that wolves were just one more variable eating at an already small profit margin.

“You have to understand that the ranchers are raising animals by the pound,” said Jimenez, the coordinator for wolf management for the Rocky Mountains. “If they run around, they abort, or they lose weight. The profit margin is not huge to begin with.”

Although wolves were delisted in Montana and Idaho without as much political wrangling, wolf hunting in those two states is as controversial.

In February, U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents killed 14 wolves from an aircraft in Idaho, heeding a request from that state, according to the Missoulian newspaper.

And the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an organization founded by hunters to promote elk habitat to “be hunted or otherwise enjoyed,” announced it would give $50,000 to help government agencies afford killing wolves that chase after livestock, the Missoulian reported. David Allen, the president of the foundation, said he wants fewer black bears, mountain lions and wolves.

“We can’t have all these predators with little aggressive management and expect to have ample game herds,” Allen told the Missoulian.

Wolves delisted
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead signed a new version of the wolf management plan into law last month. This one demands that Wyoming manage 10 breeding pairs outside of Yellowstone. An area in the northwestern part of the state would protect wolves from Oct. 15 to March 1, so they may breed with wolves from other states and avoid inbreeding.

Whether hunters will be able to take aim at wolves in the parkway is unclear. Hunting is allowed in Alaska national parks, and culling of elk has been allowed in the parkway and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

Back in Washington, D.C., Bert Frost said the National Parks Service has plans to work with the state of Wyoming. He hopes those conversations won’t become politicized.

“I hope nothing gets resolved in Washington,” Frost said. “There are the biologists on the ground, and they know the situation better than anyone else.”

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  Nez Perce National Forest employee Josh Bransford poses with a wolf trapped in north Idaho

“Footloose Montana,” a grassroots, non-profit organization that promotes trap-free public lands for people, pets and wildlife, received death threats for releasing this photo.  Humans have the ability to show compassion towards animals, yet Josh Bransford chooses to inflict unnessesary amounts of pain on this animal.  Just look at the enormous amounts of blood in the snow and he appears very proud of it. 

“Less than a year after Congress took gray wolves off the endangered species list, a Forest Service employee has come under fire for trapping a wolf in Idaho and snapping a photo of the wounded animal before killing it.

Josh Bransford posted a photo on the website www.trapperman.com last month of himself smiling as the wolf he trapped — which was still alive — limped on the bloodied snow behind him. The photo has since been taken down (It can be viewed here, but warning, the images are graphic).

The incident, which came shortly before the end of Idaho’s first-ever wolf trapping season, drew protests from environmentalists. Gray wolves in the northern Rockies were taken off the endangered species list on April 2, 2009, a decision that was reversed in federal district court in August 2010. Congress took them off again as part of last year’s budget deal on April 14, 2011, and the Fish and Wildlife Service formally delisted the wolves on May 4.

Both the Forest Service and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game have described the incident as unfortunate, but not illegal.

“The Forest Service does not condone animal cruelty in any circumstance and holds employees to represent agency standards both on and off the job,” wrote Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers in an e-mail. “While the Forest Service continues to review the case, it has been determined that the employee in question was on his personal time on private land. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has jurisdiction on such cases.”

In an interview, Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Mike Keckler said the agency’s conservation officers determined that Bransford “had all of the necessary licenses and permissions to trap wolves,” and had undergone a trapper education course.

“According to the conservation officers he did nothing illegal, but we would have preferred that he had dispatched it himself before photographing himself with it,” Keckler said. “We ask that animals be dispatched humanely and immediately.”

Bransford could not be reached for comment.

Michael Robinson, conservation advocate with the group Center for Biological Diversity, said state officials had only done a cursory review and needed to examine the matter further.

“If this is what passes as compliance with the Department of Fish and Game’s rules, there’s a serious problem with the adequacy of state regulation,” Robinson said. “Idaho Department of Fish and Game or the state’s attorney general need to take a harder look. Trapping a wolf where it can be shot at by others, shooting at the wolf, and then letting the injured animal suffer while posing for pictures all constitute animal cruelty and reflect the free-for-all mentality on wolves prevailing in Idaho in the absence of Endangered Species Act protection.”

Wolf hunting and trapping season is almost over in Idaho. The trapping season began Nov. 15 and ended March 31, while the hunting season started Aug. 30, 2011 and ended in all but two areas by the Montana border on March 31.

The wolf population in Idaho was estimated at roughly 1000 before the hunting season began. The state fish and game department website showed 377 had been hunted, trapped or snared as of Thursday.

Keckler said the state had issued more than 40,000 “wolf tags” that allow wolves to be taken by hunters. The large number came because deer hunters and others obtained the tags in case they encountered wolves while hunting other game.

“Wolves are very difficult to hunt,” he said.”

**Special thanks to Juliet Eilperin for The Washington Post for providing this information.

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