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Numbers like this they should rid that area of all wolves for a few years, and forever like it was before would be OK.

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20 wolves killed in northern Idaho to boost elk population

BOISE, Idaho (AP) Twenty wolves have been killed in the Clearwater Region in northern Idaho to bolster elk populations in the area, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game says.

The agency in a statement Wednesday said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services killed the wolves using a helicopter starting last week, and the wolf-control effort has ended.

"Predation impacts to elk calf and cow survival is the primary factor limiting recovery of the Lolo elk population," Fish and Game officials said in the statement.

The agency said elk numbers in the region in the last 25 years have fallen from 16,000 to fewer than 1,000. As a result, the agency has eliminated all rifle cow hunts and reduced by half rifle bull hunting.

The Defenders of Wildlife conservation organization revealed the aerial shooting of wolves last week and decried it as based on anti-wolf politics and not sound science

Suzanne Stone of Defenders of Wildlife said Thursday that large fires in the early 1900s created good habitat for elk that has since grown in over the decades with fire-suppression efforts, causing elk numbers to fall. Killing wolves won't change that situation, she said.

"We feel that this action is misguided and is not going to result in any meaningful change on the ground as long as the habitat in the Lolo is not sufficient to support the elk herd objective set forth by the state," she said.

An Idaho board in charge of killing wolves declined on Monday to tell lawmakers how many wolves it had killed in 2016 or how much it cost. Officials said they didn't want to provide details while the wolf-control program was operating in northern Idaho.

Last year, 19 wolves were killed in the area and 23 were shot in 2014. The Lolo zone had a minimum of 38 wolves, including six documented packs and five other wolf groups at the end of 2014, according to the state's latest wolf population report.


http://kboi2.com/news/local/20-wolves-killed-in-northern-idaho-to-boost-elk-population

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put a bounty on 'em, and let sportsmen shoot them. I'd prefer that to some professional in a 'copter.


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Hunters aren't solving this, we can buy five wolf tags each, every year. To much very difficult to access country here, including vast areas (4,792,969 acres) of designated wilderness with none out side walking or horses.

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Love the way the "defenders of wildlife" step all over themselves by decrying that it's the fire policy that has caused the issue. It's the preservation folks who have been driving the move against prescribed burns...


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Originally Posted by Mannlicher
put a bounty on 'em, and let sportsmen shoot them. I'd prefer that to some professional in a 'copter.


If elimination is the objective, it won't work. A bounty didn't work here. Give wolves decent habitat and it takes year round shooting, year round trapping, poison, aerial hunting and a lot of hard work to just keep them in check. Minnesota had a serious go at eliminating them up into the sixties and couldn't manage it. Continual harassment by human makes for some very smart, very wary wolves. IMO, just hunting and trapping will never eliminate wolves in decent habitat and I seriously doubt that even year round uncontrolled hunting and trapping would have any more effect on them than it does on coyotes.

They are very smart and difficult to kill once they have a little adverse contact with people.

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The agency said elk numbers in the region in the last 25 years have fallen from 16,000 to fewer than 1,000.


I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was THAT bad.

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Most guys don't have the time and resources to successfully hunt or trap wolves. You don't just walk out in the woods and shoot one. The number taken by hunters is quite low. I've been packing a wolf tag every year since we've had a season but have yet to see one in season.


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Why do they always quote the defenders BS and not area people or the Wildlife Biologists who made the studies that were used for the decision? Always the anti hunt BS.

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Because the liberal media is doing the quoting.


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We got rid of them before because they just killed everything in an area.

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Unless they go with every available means to kill wolves, and keep at it every year, they will never get them all. Not to mention, the IDF&G has to keep the Feds and the wolf huggers happy by not allowing the population to get to low or the Feds will take over wolf management for the state.

A year'round season, free tags, with no limit, would not keep ahead of growth. The area is big, heavily covered, and access is tough. This area isn't one big mountain meadow where you could drive your truck right to the edge and shoot a wolf as it chased an elk across the opening in front of you. If it took a week of flying to kill 20 wolves, that should be a hint as to how difficult it would be for a guy on the ground.

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Originally Posted by Mannlicher
put a bounty on 'em, and let sportsmen shoot them. I'd prefer that to some professional in a 'copter.


Spoken like a true asphalt dweller.....a bounty wouldn't do chit when you need to hike or ride horses 50-100 miles through six feet of snow to even get to where they live......

When I took the class for my Wolf trapping licence F&G was doing everything including a veiled suggestion that they would ignore wildlife violations (like trap check and no rimfire for dispatch rules) to encourage people to target the Lolo Wolf packs......keeping em in check is a lot harder in the wilderness areas than it is down here where there's logging roads and 4-wheeler trails everywhere.....

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Originally Posted by Lonny
Unless they go with every available means to kill wolves, and keep at it every year, they will never get them all. Not to mention, the IDF&G has to keep the Feds and the wolf huggers happy by not allowing the population to get to low or the Feds will take over wolf management for the state.

A year'round season, free tags, with no limit, would not keep ahead of growth. The area is big, heavily covered, and access is tough. This area isn't one big mountain meadow where you could drive your truck right to the edge and shoot a wolf as it chased an elk across the opening in front of you. If it took a week of flying to kill 20 wolves, that should be a hint as to how difficult it would be for a guy on the ground.


Well said Lonny.....we were typing at the same time...which begs the question...shouldn't you be at work right now... smile

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Expensive govt solutions to govt created problems. What's new?


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Originally Posted by FieldGrade
Well said Lonny.....we were typing at the same time...which begs the question...shouldn't you be at work right now... smile


Normally I am, but we are on 4-day work weeks and I love it. Going a couple hours longer each day is well worth it to have 3 day weekends

Heck, with all my free-time, I'll strap on some snowshoes and go whack a half dozen wolves!

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Lonny,

Off on a rabbit trail..... I loved the "4-40" work week.


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Hunted moose this past fall in an area where wolf control has worked... back in the day it was relatively easy to find a moose... wolves made that impossible.

We saw legal bulls all day every day through the whole season.

And we still saw fresh wolf and grizzly tracks in our tracks every day.


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Originally Posted by oldtrapper
Expensive govt solutions to govt created problems. What's new?


Keeps em all employed.....not necessarily working.....but employed....


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Mannlicher: It is muddled thinking like you demonstrate that got those of us who have to live and sport hunt in the Rocky Mountain west, into this transplanted Canadian Wolf mess in the first place!
The Rocky Mountain west is NOT flat like the central area of FLORIDA!
It is rugged steep and in many places is covered by dog hair type thickets.
Much of the year it is next to impossible to get to, travel in or traverse the country where Wolves are decimating certain (many!) Elk, Bighorn Sheep and Moose herds.
The ONLY way to effectively diminish their numbers is by shooting them from the air.
PERIOD!
I know a Government Trapper who last week killed 6 Wolves from the air - I only wish he had killed 60 more.
Sadly, in the last few years (since sport Hunters were allowed to satrt Hunting the Wolves) the transplanted Canadian Wolves have began to Hunt Elk, Moose and Bighorn Sheep nocturnally (that means at night!) when its next to impossible for sport Hunters to bring them to bag.
The Wolves "lay low" much of the daylight hours now.
At my high country pack-in archery camp of recent, on many nights, its next to impossible to sleep because of the Wolves howling.
Aerial Hunting of Wolves is just FINE with me and in fact I wish they would do more of it.
And with more and more eastern liberal type politicians making more and more wilderness and roadless areas here in the west it is just getting harder and harder to access much of Wolf country - doesn't stop the Wolves from doing what Wolves do it just makes it harder and harder for sport Hunters to try and diminish the current over population of Wolves!
Thanks for nothing rmWf!
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Originally Posted by Lonny
Originally Posted by FieldGrade
Well said Lonny.....we were typing at the same time...which begs the question...shouldn't you be at work right now... smile


Normally I am, but we are on 4-day work weeks and I love it. Going a couple hours longer each day is well worth it to have 3 day weekends

Heck, with all my free-time, I'll strap on some snowshoes and go whack a half dozen wolves!


Four tens is nice....wish that would have caught on before I left the work force....

Stop and pick me up pn your way.....I'll bring a few traps.....between the two of us we should have the situation under control in no time....


Kidding aside......I don't know about this year but last year F&G was allowing a select few trappers to go into the Lolo well after the season ended......and by select few I mean anyone that would volunteer...I'm pretty sure there was some money involved too but I doubt they classified it as a "bounty"......despite their many down-falls IG&G really is doing everything they can but the Feds have em hamstrung.....

Last edited by FieldGrade; 02/12/16.
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Originally Posted by 700LH
Hunters aren't solving this, we can buy five wolf tags each, every year. To much very difficult to access country here, including vast areas (4,792,969 acres) of designated wilderness with none out side walking or horses.


then I guess not enough people care about killing wolves.


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Some photos from part of the Lolo zone. Aerial gunning and trapping is the only real option to effectively remove enough wolves to make any difference. Most of the area is steep and rugged country with very limited road or trail access.

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

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Originally Posted by Mannlicher
Originally Posted by 700LH
Hunters aren't solving this, we can buy five wolf tags each, every year. To much very difficult to access country here, including vast areas (4,792,969 acres) of designated wilderness with none out side walking or horses.


then I guess not enough people care about killing wolves.


Every hunter I know shoots Wolves on site.....even before it was legal so don't put this back on ID hunters you condecending prick.....it's the Feds.....Most of which are asphalt dwelling yankees like yourself.....who let this chit get out of control....

If killing Wolves is so easy why don't you bring your loud mouth out here and kill a pile of em for us lazy fuggers........
You wouldn't last two miles in there you phony pfuk....

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Originally Posted by Mannlicher
Originally Posted by 700LH
Hunters aren't solving this, we can buy five wolf tags each, every year. To much very difficult to access country here, including vast areas (4,792,969 acres) of designated wilderness with none out side walking or horses.


then I guess not enough people care about killing wolves.


Incredibly naive of you...

When the AK wolf population went through the roof many tried to kill wolves but few did. It ain't that easy.


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Originally Posted by Ghostinthemachine
Quote
The agency said elk numbers in the region in the last 25 years have fallen from 16,000 to fewer than 1,000.


I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was THAT bad.


Killing 20 wolves in that are will have no measurable effect whatsoever.

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I spend a few weeks in the back country every year, mostly horseback, with a wolf tag, and I have never even gotten a decent shot at one. They are incredibly wary now that they are being hunted. They move through the toughest terrain like water, and even a skilled rider on a good mountain horse has no chance of following once they decide to get out of dodge.

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Wisconsin DNR took a different approach to wolves drastically reducing the number of elk in Wisconsin. Instead of shooting or trapping wolves they trapped elk and moved them out of harms way...so they thought. grin

Then the Feds de-listed the wolves and we got to hunt them for a couple of years until a Federal judge out east decided against it. Elk herd continues to suffer from wolf predation, so the DNR decided to import more elk from Kentucky and place them south of the northern range of the wolves.

Southern wolves have been dining on those Kentucky elk.

We got rid of the wolves once here in Wisconsin...last known wolf was eliminated by 1960.


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Originally Posted by Mannlicher
Originally Posted by 700LH
Hunters aren't solving this, we can buy five wolf tags each, every year. To much very difficult to access country here, including vast areas (4,792,969 acres) of designated wilderness with none out side walking or horses.


then I guess not enough people care about killing wolves.


From both of your comments, it's obvious you have no clue what you are talking about....

Lochsa, really nice pics. That gives a glimpse at what a guy on foot would be facing.

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Originally Posted by Lonny


Lochsa, really nice pics. That gives a glimpse at what a guy on foot would be facing.


I've hunted in the upper Selway around the Lochsa river & it's probably the absolute toughest country I've ever hunted anywhere.

Not sure exactly where the pics are taken from but it looks to be the same.........until you're in it, you cannot imagine how really tough it is.

The only way to get rid of the wolves is with traps & poison.

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All this talk about how tough wolves are to kill, six feet of snow, steep mountains...

I killed one on the way to my mail box! grin

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wolves have started camping around my house this winter.
had three in the drive way last week looking for my dogs. left in a hurry when i stepped out with the AR.
[Linked Image]
just a small pack. was told by a wolf expert that they only run in 4 to 6 dog packs. they must be holding a family reunion above.


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Are we just now starting to appreciate what a feat it was to get rid of them in the first place? ;-{>8


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Originally Posted by deerstalker
wolves have started camping around my house this winter.
had three in the drive way last week looking for my dogs. left in a hurry when i stepped out with the AR.
[Linked Image]
just a small pack. was told by a wolf expert that they only run in 4 to 6 dog packs. they must be holding a family reunion above.


Is that an AK picture? Several big areas up here had some monster packs. A pack that big can and does kill a ridiculous pile of big critters in a hurry.


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Originally Posted by deerstalker
wolves have started camping around my house this winter.
had three in the drive way last week looking for my dogs. left in a hurry when i stepped out with the AR.
[Linked Image]
just a small pack. was told by a wolf expert that they only run in 4 to 6 dog packs. they must be holding a family reunion above.


Holy SH*T !!! eek

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There are videos of even larger packs due west of Anchorage from back in the wolf peak days. IIRC over 40 in one long line.


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I counted 24 wolves in the string -they could destroy a lot of big game animals for sure.

I've never hunted any further north than the Stanley area if Lolo is much rougher than that I don't know that I could do it.
I've left the truck in a dry area and the first mountain had me nearly out of water. Climbing that loose scrabble -two steps up slide back down 1.5 steps- will get you fast.

On foot the hunting is very hard if you aren't an ounce counter with your backpack outfit and rifle etc. you better be in tip-top shape .

If pelts were selling for really high dollar -trappers could put a small dent in the wolf population -pack in a truck load of snares and traps .
I do agree that the only way to make a big difference would be year round hunting and trapping and that isn't going to happen legally -so? mans got to do what a mans got to do.



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I've never hunted any further north than the Stanley area if Lolo is much rougher than that I don't know that I could do it.
I wouldn't say that Lolo is more rugged than the Sawtooths but it's definitely more dense. North Idaho gets more water so there's thicker timber and more brush. It can be pretty nasty.


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I've hunted some very thick terrain in my day - besides not being able to see very far -the wind always blows 360* in those places.


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Originally Posted by roundoak

Then the Feds de-listed the wolves and we got to hunt them for a couple of years until a Federal judge out east decided against it.


Same thing happened here in ID. We had a wolf season, then some bunny huggers filed suit, and a federal judge declared the hunting season illegal. Our governor negotiated with them for six months and they wouldn't budge. So he got on the radio and declared the Canadian Gray Wolf a clear and present danger to the wildlife of the State of Idaho and enjoined all Idaho state employees from enforcing any Federal law concerning wolves. Then it was open season for a few months before the judge saw the error of his ways. They haven't messed with our hunting season since.

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Originally Posted by Mannlicher
Originally Posted by 700LH
Hunters aren't solving this, we can buy five wolf tags each, every year. To much very difficult to access country here, including vast areas (4,792,969 acres) of designated wilderness with none out side walking or horses.


then I guess not enough people care about killing wolves.


Since de-listing in Idaho I have spent 13 weeks trying to shoot a Wolf. I have tried spot and stalk, still hunting and calling. I have hunted in the Sawtooth, Frank Church and White Cloud Wilderness area and in the Salmon zone from the Montana border and Hwy 93 to the Montana border on route 28. I have tried from October through March. I guess I need more skill and experience and drive.

Thanks for the encouragement and insight.


mike r

Last edited by lvmiker; 02/14/16.

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Originally Posted by ol_mike
I've hunted some very thick terrain in my day - besides not being able to see very far -the wind always blows 360* in those places.
But in FL you're not climbing a 45 degree rockpile while you're doing it. grin


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Originally Posted by OSU_Sig
Love the way the "defenders of wildlife" step all over themselves by decrying that it's the fire policy that has caused the issue. It's the preservation folks who have been driving the move against prescribed burns...


They are a precious bunch are they not. What Idiots

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Originally Posted by lvmiker

Since de-listing in Idaho I have spent 13 weeks trying to shoot a Wolf. I have tried spot and stalk, still hunting and calling. I have hunted in the Sawtooth, Frank Church and White Cloud Wilderness area and in the Salmon zone from the Montana border and Hwy 93 to the Montana border on route 28. I have tried from October through March. I guess I need more skill and experience and drive.

Thanks for the encouragement and insight.


mike r


Good on you for giving it one helluva try Mike. Almost every wolf that I've heard of killed with a rifle was incidental to hunting something else and in many cases it was just dumb-azz luck. By listening to some people, you would swear there was one behind every tree, but the truth it's less than a 1 percent success rate.

The odds are probably higher of stumbling across a mtn lion and killing it. Not to stop anybody from going because you sure as heck won't get one from behind the monitor. And if you do score, a big congrats on killing, in my opinion, the best trophy animal Idaho has to offer.

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I have a collection of un-filled Mt. Lion tags also. The good news is that I haven't had a tough pack out in 5 years.


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Have you had any close wolf encounters on your hunts where it looked like it might happen?

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Originally Posted by lochsa
Some photos from part of the Lolo zone. Aerial gunning and trapping is the only real option to effectively remove enough wolves to make any difference. Most of the area is steep and rugged country with very limited road or trail access.

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]


Damn cool looking country. Also damn tough looking.

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Elk taken by hunting, by unit, in Idaho 1989 thru 2013.
In units 10 and 12 in the Lolo zone, harvested elk went from 1975 elk in 1989, to only 100 taken in 2012.

Link to Idaho elk harvest numbers by unit and zone, 1989-2012
http://www.idahoforwildlife.com/index.php/research-data/idaho-elk-harvest-graphs-and-data

In that time span we have gone from over the counter state wide elk tags, to limits and draws, to no tags in some areas.


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Originally Posted by Lonny
Have you had any close wolf encounters on your hunts where it looked like it might happen?


Not even close, I have had howls answered but from a distance and no sighting. I did see tracks of 2 wolves that were quite old above Stanley lake. The good news is that looking is good exercise in spectacular country.


mike r


Don't wish it were easier
Wish you were better

Stab them in the taint, you can't put a tourniquet on that.
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2 years ago I took an early Oct scouting trip just north of Ketchum, ID. I was looking for deer sign but wolf and bear seasons were open so I took a rifle. I had 2 pack llamas. I was about 2 miles in when I went through a small valley just covered with wolf tracks. It had snowed that morning so they were no more than 4 hrs old. It was hard to tell how many there were with all the tracks. I slept lightly that night listening for my llamas' warning calls but I never saw any.


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With all this arguing, it seems the smart thing to do is open wolf to no tags and no season, AND keep after em with aerial gunning.

Watch the numbers if you must, but I suspect its like pigs... do all you can and unless you poison em, all it will do is keep em somewhat in check.

Certainly holding off allowing anyone to kill one is nuts....

Coyotes here are not furbearers. No season and sort of technically no license required. Its much safer to hold a normal hunting license just in case, but beyond that you can't do the normal things like shoot on private property without permission, or shoot across public roads...

Thats about as limited as it needs to be too.


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Campfire Kahuna
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The feds put Idaho in charge of managing wolves but sent no money along to do it. The IDFG is funded almost solely by license and tag sales so any wolf management money had to come from those. They priced them cheap ($11 for a resident tag) in hopes that enough hunters would buy a tag 'just in case' to help keep them from having to reduce management of something else.


“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
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Actually now that I think of it, if the tag was 20, and helped pay for the helo... and everyone was smart enough that cared about the rest of the game, to buy one to support it, it would be a good deal.

Certainly the bunny huggers that won't have any bunnies to hug don't and won't ever get it.

In TX they finally offer a stamp of some sort for "bunny huggers" so we can say, if you don't contribute, you shouldn't have a say, here contribute.... I doubt the sales numbers are very high though...


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Campfire Kahuna
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It's not unlike the situation with large African game, like elephants. The huggers want it all stopped without considering that the huge fees paid by a hunter goes a long way toward preserving them.


“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell

It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Campfire Kahuna
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how about this from the December 2015 Science Magazine

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/350/6267/1473


Sam......

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Originally Posted by Sitka deer
Originally Posted by Mannlicher
Originally Posted by 700LH
Hunters aren't solving this, we can buy five wolf tags each, every year. To much very difficult to access country here, including vast areas (4,792,969 acres) of designated wilderness with none out side walking or horses.


then I guess not enough people care about killing wolves.


Incredibly naive of you...

When the AK wolf population went through the roof many tried to kill wolves but few did. It ain't that easy.


I suppose this would be like some dick head, present company excluded of course, telling me how we should manage alligators in Florida. I have never been there, nor even seen a wolf. Thought it was easier than that.
Y'all carry on with what works for you up the frozen north. laughing


Sam......

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Originally Posted by lochsa
Some photos from part of the Lolo zone. Aerial gunning and trapping is the only real option to effectively remove enough wolves to make any difference. Most of the area is steep and rugged country with very limited road or trail access.

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]


Dang those pictures bring back some memories. My wife and I did timber inventory work on the Clearwater NF for 8 months back in '86. No wolves there then. Would routinely come across acre size elk wallows and trails that resemble cow paths. Damn steep country. Only easy place to walk was along the ridges. Stream valleys were almost always cris-crossed with downed timber or choked with alder or yew. Most side hills are 100% plus slope. Spent 6 years before that working the San Juan Mt area of SW Colorado and that country was much easier to navigate. Sad to hear the elk heard has been so devastated. Always had it in my mind to get back to the Clearwater someday to do some elk hunting.


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Campfire Kahuna
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Quote
Spent 6 years before that working the San Juan Mt area of SW Colorado and that country was much easier to navigate.
I read an article by an outfitter who at various times had worked in all of the mountain states. He considered Idaho to be the roughest. He said that while places like CO were higher, they stayed high. Idaho is more convoluted so you have a lot more nasty up and nastier down.


“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
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Campfire Member
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Originally Posted by Rock Chuck
Quote
Spent 6 years before that working the San Juan Mt area of SW Colorado and that country was much easier to navigate.
I read an article by an outfitter who at various times had worked in all of the mountain states. He considered Idaho to be the roughest. He said that while places like CO were higher, they stayed high. Idaho is more convoluted so you have a lot more nasty up and nastier down.


Yup, clinging to ceanothus on 100%+ slopes saved my butt from a nasty falls several times. When doing timber inventory we had to run compass lines so couldn't avoid much of the steep. A lot more open country in Colorado. Much less undergrowth in most areas.


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Campfire Kahuna
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Originally Posted by Mannlicher
Originally Posted by Sitka deer
Originally Posted by Mannlicher
Originally Posted by 700LH
Hunters aren't solving this, we can buy five wolf tags each, every year. To much very difficult to access country here, including vast areas (4,792,969 acres) of designated wilderness with none out side walking or horses.


then I guess not enough people care about killing wolves.


Incredibly naive of you...

When the AK wolf population went through the roof many tried to kill wolves but few did. It ain't that easy.


I suppose this would be like some dick head, present company excluded of course, telling me how we should manage alligators in Florida. I have never been there, nor even seen a wolf. Thought it was easier than that.
Y'all carry on with what works for you up the frozen north. laughing


Well with that last word, you got abducted by stick didn't ya....


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Campfire Kahuna
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Bigstick? Hardly. Jesus Christ Jeff, you know me better than that. laugh


Sam......

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laughin... LOL

Sorry, got carried away.


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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