Idaho Kills 17 Wolves On Public Lands To Benefit Elk Hunters
- Thomas Nelson
- March 25, 2020
- Animals, News, Politics
- 0 Comments
In February, 17 wolves were killed in Idaho by the state’s Department of Fish and Game in an effort to help struggling elk populations. Similar wolf population control efforts have been carried out by the agency for the last eight out of nine years.
“Restoring the Lolo elk population will require continued harvest of black bears, mountain lions and wolves along with wolf control actions,” the Department of Fish and Game said in a statement. “The overall objective is not to eliminate wolves but to maintain a smaller, but self-sustaining wolf population in the Lolo Zone to allow the elk population to recover.”
In 1989, the elk populations in the Lolo Zone, located in North Central Idaho, were as high as 16,000. By 2017, that number dropped to 2,000. The decline in elk living in the Lolo Zone began before wolves were reintroduced to the region.
The Department of Fish and Game has killed approximately 14 wolves each year since 2011. It’s an effort that on its face sounds noble, but some environmental groups believe that the killing is unjustified.
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Wolf Conservation Center, anot-for-profit environmental education organization, says the killing of wolves isn’t to benefit elk, but human hunters.
“Idaho killed these 17 wolves via its “Wolf Control Program” to boost the elk population for human hunters in the Lolo Elk Management Zone,” the organization writes on its website.
They added: “History tells us … that the Lolo elk population dropped to historically low levels before wolves were restored to the region in the mid-1990s. So, in an effort to boost elk numbers for human hunters, Idaho is scapegoating wolves and ignoring the many factors that affect elk population including human activities, weather, disease, and wildfire.”
The WCC argues that killing wolves on public lands to benefit just a handful of hunters warrants public attention.
“The public lands of the United States harbor some of the greatest resources of our nation and are owned by all Americans,” the organization wrote. “This begs the question, should we allow the killing of wildlife on our public lands to benefit a small faction of hunters in Idaho?”
Despite protests from environmental groups, it doesn’t look as though wolf killings in Idaho will end any time soon. On March 22nd, the Idaho State Senate voted 26-4 to approve a budget bill that allocates nearly $400,000 from the state’s general fund to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for killing wolves that prey on livestock or wildlife.
The bill passed the Idaho State House by a 56-12 margin on Tuesday.
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