Jeff Humphrey | KXLY4 Reporter
WEIPPE, Idaho — Next week the State of Idaho is launching new offensive in its battle against a growing gray wolf population. On November 15, Idaho will begin allowing the public to trap wolves, which were once on the brink of extinction, in an effort to bring their numbers under control.
Legalized trapping is as deadly as it is controversial as hunters will now be allowed to use snares or leg hold in the hopes of catching hundreds of wolves around the clock.
There’s tremendous potential for suffering and other animals inadvertently getting caught but Idaho Fish and Game officials insist trapping is necessary.
Shane Richards lost some of his hunting dogs to a wolf attack.
“The first dog I found was Ruby,” hunter Shane Richards said. “They didn’t try to kill her by getting her by the throat like they say predators do. No they just went in and started tearing her guts out, eating her alive.”
Hunter Rene Anderson also found herself in a position of having to defend herself against a charging wolf.
“It was coming down pretty fast towards me. It was kind of nerve racking. I laid my bow on the ground and I thought this thing seriously wants to eat me,” Anderson said. “So it popped up over there, like ten feet from where I was and I shot it and I hit it in the head.”
The wolf Anderson shot is one of more than approximately 1,000 wolves roaming rural Idaho. Once hunted to near extinction, wolves have enjoyed years of federal protection as an endangered species and are making a strong comeback.
“Wolves are part of the landscape, I think that’s a given,” Gary Macfarlane with Friends of the Clearwater said. “They are in fact what we call a keystone predator, they’re necessary for the health of ecological systems.”
Environmentalists say a recovering wolf population is bringing back a balance between grazing game animals and their natural enemies.
“Now elk numbers are coming down and they need to come down. They need to come down for long-term watershed health,” Macfarlane said.
However not many people living in towns like Pierce and Weippe welcome the way wolves are now affecting their everyday life.
“Outside of Weippe we have a ton, a ton of wolves, there’s tracks every where,” Terri Summerfield said. “I now have to pack a pistol with me every time we go riding. I can’t ride in pleasure any more because I always have to wonder what’s behind that bush, what’s going to happen if the wolf jumps out at my horse.”
Summerfield’s family got their first look at a wolf pack just two miles from their home.
“My husband was taking out our 15-year-old son, try to get him his first elk,” Summerfield said.
Lured in by the Summerfield’s cow elk calls, the wolves responded to investigate.
“And it just wasn’t one wolf it was a whole pack of them, came in and one started coming right towards them,” she said.
When the Summerfields realized the pack was trying to flank them they scared the wolves away.
Environmentalists say the hunting party should have expected the encounter.
“No you really shouldn’t be surprised if you make a cow elk noise. I’ve had friends do the same thing and instead of a wolf showing up, they’ve had a cougar show up,” Gary Macfarlane said.
However wolves are now setting their sights on more than just hunters.
“We woke up to some loud noises coming from all directions around our wall tent,” Mark Walton said.
Walton was camping with his family on the north fork of the Clearwater River. When the wolves woke up his children, the pack got even more aggressive.
“When they started to cry, the wolves just started howling like crazy and they started coming in closer,” Walton explained. “We finally went outside our tent, started yelling and waving our arms around and went and jumped in our car and slept the rest of the night in our car after that.”
Walton says the wolf sightings are now even common place around rural homes were farm animals making a tempting, easy meal.
“The wife can’t go out in the yard without a rifle in close range, luckily she’s a very good shot,” Walton said.
From his office above a Moscow street, Friends of the Clearwater director Gary Macfarlane is trying to be heard over the clamor of a growing anti-wolf movement.
“The danger to humans has been way overblown; the Little Red Riding Hood syndrome is alive and well. Wolves really don’t represent a big threat to humans,” he said.
In fact there are no documented cases of wolf attacks on humans in the lower 48 states, but Idaho wildlife officials are certain wolves are killing big game.
“There is no doubt the majority of the mortality that’s occurring on our elk particularly elk calves and moose calves are due directly to wolves,” Dave Cadwallader with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said.
That’s why when Congress took the gray wolf off the endangered species list earlier this year, Idaho legalized wolf hunting.
“We need to reclaim our rural communities and our way of life,” Cadwallader said. “Hunting and fishing is a big industry and wolves have impacted that big time.”
Idaho Fish and Game sold more than 6,000 wolf tags but so far hunters have only killed a little more than a hundred. Thick forests make it tough to spot wolves and so now trappers will take a shot at reducing their numbers.
“Hunters were not very successful and so we need to add something on top of that to try to reduce some of the wolf population, and trapping is a viable means to try to add to that,” Cadwallader said.
Hunters who complete a fish and game class can set both leg hold traps and snares. The problem is that the practice of trapping wolves is less than humane and can cause collateral damage to other animals.
“It’s sad to see but the Idaho Fish and Game agency is no longer a wildlife management agency but they are game farmers,” Gary Macfarlane said. “That’s what they’ve become, especially because they want to kill so many wolves.”
But people living in and around Pierce say they’ll be setting their wolf traps early next week, both for the benefit of shrinking elk herds as well as their family’s safety.
On Tuesday several environmental groups asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to declare this latest move to take the wolf off the endangered species list illegal. The court has not rendered a decision, and until it does, Idaho Fish and Game officials hope hunters and trappers will kill hundreds of wolves in the coming months.