Idaho Wolf Hunt Starts Today

09/01/2009

Idaho's first wolf hunting season opens today (Tuesday) in some parts of the state. How long it will stay open is up to a federal judge in Montana. Yesterday Judge Donald Molloy heard arguments from attorneys for conservation groups who want to stop the fall hunts in Idaho and Montana. He says he'll decide as quickly as he can. Meanwhile, hunters are ready to shoot wolves.

Milt Turley is happy this day has finally come. The retired teacher and elk hunter is headed for the mountains of north central Idaho. Does he have his treasured wolf tag?

Turley: "Does a dog have a tail? Certainly."

Turley is one of several thousand Idaho hunters who, in the last week, have forked over 12 bucks for the right to shoot one of 220 wolves. That's about a quarter of the estimated population. The Nez Perce Tribe has authorized another 35 to be killed.

The wolves have only been off the endangered list for four months. Conservation groups say this is no time to be killing them.

To Edmund Ziegler, the animal is already a menace, competing with sportsmen for prized elk.

Ziegler: "They'll kill them and let 'em lay. They're a pack of dogs and they'll chase stuff down for the fun of it. They might only take a couple of chunks out of it and let it go for awhile because they're already so full from all the other animals they've been eating."

The state has authorized hunters to shoot 27 wolves in what it calls the Lolo zone. That's one of 12 wolf zones in Idaho. In most of those, the season won't open until October 1. But, in a few places, hunters are getting a head start.

Todd Hoffman of Post Falls, Idaho says, when he goes, he'll look for elk first, wolves second. But he says it's getting harder to find elk.

Hoffman: "I think it's time to just get the wolves under some management policy so that we can kind of maintain a healthy balance or achieve a healthy balance of wolves and elk and the other prey in the ecosystem."

Who should be responsible for finding that healthy balance? Todd Hoffman argues people. Members of the Northern Idaho Wolf Alliance argue nature.

Augustine: "I believe, for now, that we should let wolves and their prey balance themselves out."

Stephen Augustine is a member of the Northern Idaho Wolf Alliance. He protested Idaho's wolf hunting season outside the state Department of Fish and Game headquarters in Coeur d'Alene.

Augustine: "I think we need to find that balance and I don't think that we know what it is."

Augustine believes the state's quota of 220 wolves is an arbitrary number with no scientific support. Dr. Ken Fischman agrees. He says many more are likely to die. The retired geneticist from Sandpoint, Idaho, says the state and tribal hunts are only part of the wolf mortality.

Fischman: "And then you add to that the ones that Idaho Fish and Game kill every year for alleged depredation of livestock. Last year, that was 136. And to that you add accidents, illegal takings."

Fischman believes as many 500 wolves could die this year, more than half of the state's population. Several biologists believe that's overstating the case. Some doubt hunters will be able to kill anything close to the 220 wolves allocated by the state.

While members of the wolf alliance demonstrate, Milt Turley, Ron Mazurek and a few other men stand back and talk about the bigger picture.

Unidentified man: "It's more about the hunting than it is the wolf."

Turley: "Oh yeah, I think it's more about gun control."

Mazurek: "It's PETA. It's the Humane Society. It's the Friends of the Animals. It has nothing to do with a specific specie. It has to do with hunters. They do not want anything killed, period."

That last voice was Ron Mazurek's. He says he supports the professional, not the emotional, management of wildlife.

Mazurek: "Let the managers manage the animals accordingly and don't let any of it get out of hand and the wolves have gotten out of hand."

Turley: "Big time."

Mazurek: "As far as this state is concerned."

Mazurek and Milt Turley will get their wish, unless Judge Donald Molloy issues an injunction stopping Idaho's wolf season.

I'm Doug Nadvornick in Coeur d'Alene.

© Copyright 2009, Spokane Public Radio