Idaho gets no takers for wolves
Posted by ameunier
LEWISTON, Idaho(AP) — Idaho isn’t getting into the wolf export business any time soon.
Earlier this year, Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Cal Groen sent letters offering up Idaho wolves to any state that wanted to manage them.
So far, at least 20 states have rejected Idaho’s pitch to trap and export some of its wolves.
A bill approved by the 2009 Legislature required the department to explore the idea.
Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, the bill’s sponsor, says he didn’t expect any takers. Instead, he said the pitch to other states is an attempt to help insulate the state against claims that could be made in lawsuits by environmentalists opposed to the federal government’s decision to take wolves off the endangered species list. He said environmentalists could argue that if Idaho wants to reduce its wolf numbers, then it should give them away instead of killing or allowing public hunts.
Schroeder has been outspoken against the state’s growing wolf population, in part due to their impact on the state’s elk and deer.
“Now we are in a legal position in court where we can say we have asked other states, nobody wants them,” Schroeder told the Lewiston Tribune.
In May, the federal government removed more than 1,300 wolves in Montana and Idaho from the endangered species list. Environmentalists have sued to restore federal oversight.
The case is before U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula. In a similar lawsuit in 2008, Molloy reinstated federal protection for the wolf.
About 300 wolves in Wyoming are still listed as endangered.
Idaho is now poised to have its first wolf hunting season in decades this fall. The state Fish and Game Commission later this month will review hunting quotas and rules for hunting. The agency is proposing to reduce Idaho’s wolf population to 518, about half of the 1,000 predators now estimated to be roaming the state.
Last month, wildlife officials in neighboring Montana voted to let hunters there shoot 75 wolves starting in mid-September.