Idaho Legislature takes step toward wolf management
BOISE, Idaho (AP) – A state House committee approved legislation Wednesday that would authorize the governor’s Office of Species Conservation to begin taking over management of Idaho’s protected gray wolves from the federal government.
But before the vote, it was open season for rhetorical pot shots at both the feds and the animals themselves.
‘The only thing wrong with this bill is that there’s no appropriation for ammunition,’ said state Rep. Chuck Cuddy, D-Orofino.
Since reintroduction in the mid-1990s, wolf numbers in the Northern Rockies area of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana has grown dramatically, and federal officials are considering reducing protections for the predator.
Pending now is reclassification from ‘endangered’ to ‘threatened.’ While the animals would still be protected, the reclassification would, among other things, allow ranchers to kill wolves caught attacking their livestock.
‘Right now …, if a guy walks out his back door and sees a wolf attacking his calf, he can’t do anything about it,’ said Ed Bangs, who heads the recovery program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ‘Under ‘threatened,’ he can shoot and kill the wolf on the spot. He just has to report to us within 24 hours.’
The reclassification also would launch the next phase of the agency’s recovery program: Delisting, or removing all federal protection, and letting the states manage the species like other wild animals. Bangs estimates delisting could come sometime in 2004.
But before that can happen, the three states must adopt acceptable state wolf management plans. The bill before the Idaho Legislature is a move toward that goal.