Sportsmen Group Pushing for Utah Wolf Hunt
by Elizabeth Ziegler
(KCPW News) Idaho’s first wolf hunting season since the predator was taken off the Endangered Species List is underway, and some in Utah are pushing for a similar hunting season, though wolf sightings are rare here. Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife Board Chairman John Bair says a hunt should be added to the state’s wolf management plan in case the wolf population becomes established in Utah.
“You know, if you allow wolves to establish and aren’t allowed to manage them, well by the time you do get management turned over to the state, they’re so far out hand that you know there’s been such damage done that it could take years to recover, if it ever does recover,” Bair says. “So I believe that a wolf hunt in Utah is, you know, to have one in line so that if they do show up so we can manage them, is just good management.”
Bair believes wolves are “killing machines” that would decimate the state’s elk herds and hurt the hunting industry.
Division of Wildlife Resources Mammals coordinator Kevin Bunnell says it’s unclear whether Idaho’s hunt will keep wolves from migrating south into Utah. He says a handful of wolf sightings have been confirmed by wildlife biologists in the past five years. But he says it would be premature to push for a wolf hunting season when there isn’t even an established population. He believes the state’s current management plan is sufficient.
“Although hunting isn’t a part of the plan, there are provisions to try to protect sensitive big game herds already in the current plan. And so, yeah, in my opinion I think those concerns have been addressed,” Bunnell says.
Idaho now has more than 800 wolves, and will allow hunters to kill 220 of them during this first hunting season. However, the hunt could be called off pending the ruling of an environmental lawsuit. Meanwhile, Montana’s wolf hunting season is slated to start in two weeks.