Idaho fund-raiser aims to give wolves the boot
Group told reintroductions hurt elk hunting, business
Dan Hansen
Staff writer
OROFINO, Idaho — There are Idahoans who like hearing the howl of wolves in their state.
There are Idahoans who are ambivalent about federal efforts to restore the predator.
Those folks were scarce Saturday, when about 300 people gathered at Orofino High School for a fund-raiser aimed at making Idaho wolf-free. The money raised is for lobbying the state Legislature to sue federal agencies over wolf reintroductions that have led to a booming population.
“Save State’s Rights, Kill A Wolf!” read a bumper sticker available at the event.
Of course, to kill a wolf without good cause is a federal offense, wolves being on the Endangered Species list and all. And that, said invited speakers and a good share of the audience, shouldn’t be so.
“Who among us is so stupid as to think, well, wolves are here, so let’s try to live with them,” state Rep. Lenore Hardy Barrett said to applause. “We cannot co-exist.”
Orofino is on the Clearwater River, gateway to some of the best elk hunting in the world. While sympathetic to Southern Idaho ranchers who complain that wolves kill their cattle, people in Orofino worry more about elk.
They contend the herd is being devastated. And there were pictures on the back table to prove it — bloody scenes of half-eaten elk carcasses in the snow.
Wolves kill for sport, said John Nelson, a St. Maries hunter and anti-wolf crusader. They rip apart elk calves as they are being born, he said.
“It’s not a good deal for anyone who’s a sportsman,” said Ryan Girard, an Orofino native and wildlands firefighter. “Our ancestors thinned them out for a reason.”
“We have a hardware store in Pierce (Idaho), and part of our business depends on the hunting season,” said Dave Patterson. “The past couple of seasons, it’s declined because the out-of-state hunters aren’t coming as much as they were.”
The region is already suffering economically from mill closures and logging restrictions. “And with the wolves threatening our game herds, it’s just another hit,” said Patterson, who nevertheless isn’t ready to say wolves should be removed from the state entirely.
Native to the West, gray wolves were wiped out by the 1950s, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Some people here doubt that, saying there were always a few around in the deep recesses of Idaho.
In a move that the state officially opposed, the wildlife service released 15 gray wolves from Canada into central Idaho in 1995 and 20 more in 1996.
Speakers at Saturday’s fund-raiser insist those Canadian wolves are a subspecies separate from the Idaho originals, and don’t belong in the state. Federal biologists, while acknowledging that the wolves are considerably bigger than the originals, say they are genetically the same.
At any rate, the population has grown faster than anyone expected. The latest federal estimate is 269 wolves, a figure that brings Ron Gillett nearly to convulsions.
“We are confident there are between 700 and 1,000 wolves in the state,” said Gillett, head of the Central Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition.
Gillett would like to reduce that number significantly. Specifically, he’d like to make Idaho home to just one wolf, which he says should be neutered and kept in the Boise zoo.
Barrett, R-Challis, told the crowd she thinks the state can successfully sue the federal government because states are supposed to have control over the animals within their borders. She wants the state Legislature to demand a lawsuit, as Wyoming’s lawmakers recently did.
“They (wildlife service officials) are law-breakers and snake-oil salesmen,” she said.
Barrett, Gillett and other speakers warned that the wildlife service isn’t sincere about plans to end federal protection of wolves in 2004.
But even if it happened, Gillett said, the feds would still be watching closely to make sure the wolf population doesn’t dip too low. Better to sue and win, and get rid of the critters all together, he said.
The fund-raiser, with its auction and $4-a-plate dinner, was a big event in this town of 2,800. People greeted each other with handshakes and hugs.
Dennis Harper, an Orofino chiropractor, showed up wearing a T-shirt with a serene picture of wolves on the front. Anyone who knows him knows it was a joke.
“Isn’t this (event) to raise money to plant more wolves?” he asked, innocently.
Among the crowd was a middle-aged man who said he moved from Los Angeles to Orofino a year ago to help his ailing mother-in-law and escape the city.
He heard chatter about the meeting at The Woodlot Tavern and decided to attend to learn more about local issues.
“What is this all about?” the man asked, confidentially. “They want to run out an endangered species to preserve the game herds so we can shoot ’em, isn’t that right?”
He spoke very quietly.