Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire WOLVES IN IDAHO

This may be old news to most but todays' Billings Gazette tells of two U. S. Forest Service employees, both from Utah, who were camped out in Idahos' Sawtooth Wilderness late last month. These two witnessed some playfull wolves chasing a bull elk thru a meadow and then heard these vegeterian, harmless wolves howling and got spooked. So, like you or I would have done, they radioed to headquarters for help whereupon the big man with the local U.S. F. S. quickly dispatches a helicopter to rescue our heros.

The helicopter has to land in the wilderness but that makes no difference as that is just a small part of their private property but no one other that one of these public servants had better not even think of doing such a fowl deed,especially for the invalid purpose of rescueing someone from playfull wolves that sure would not harm anyone. That's what they tell us so why were they in the least bit alarmed?

What's your take on this event?

Sounds like the story is a bunch of bull-puckie to me...

Casey

agreed on the second point.

I know a woman that broke her back in the wilderness and it took two hours once the USFS was notified of the situation to issue authorizaton to fly in and land. I doubt this story has much fact behind it.

Here is the article as written in the Billings Gazette, word for word, October 12, 2006.

2 USFS workers hear wolves, call for rescue

KETCHUM, Idaho - The sound of howling wolves prompted two U.S. Forest Service employees to call for a helicopter evacuation from the Sawtooth Wilderness late last month, officials said.

The employees, both from Utah, became frightened Sept. 23 after seeing wolves chasing a bull elk across the meadow and later hearing the animals howl, said Ed Waldapfel, a spokesman for the Sawtooth National Forest.

Waldapfel did not know the employees names.

For anyone that would like to confirm this article, e mail Ed Waldapfel at
ewaldapfel@fs.fed.us

then go ahead and post his answer

Wow. I can't write what I'd have told them had they asked me for rescue.

How far they've come! Pavement pounding yuppies!

When I and the other two members of the Trail Crew in Calder Ranger District, St. Joe Nat'l Forest, mentioned (we thought it cool, not threatening, despite the adrenaline flowing)) the two grizzly cubs and sow we encountered on the North Fork of Big Creek, we were told there were no grizzlies in northern Idaho. This was in 1968. (And I WAS packing a personal rifle, contrary to policy- I was only 20 - , and from the flatlands of North Dakota- but this was our second year on Trail Crew - I'd learned from year one. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> A Pulaski isn't all that much of a defensive weapon! There were scary critters back in those mountains, some of them with four legs.)

That (directive) pretty much defined our trail crew relationship with our desk-bound "bosses" - career FS employees, who IMHO, didn't know chit from shinola even then. We pretty much told them what they wanted to hear, from that point on.

If this report is true, it just goes to show what a college education sans real world experience will do for you.

It must of dawned on them that carnivors will eat the nearest and easiest meal of opportunity when hungry. Being tht God didn't give them horns,hide, hooves, claws, or teeth worth a damn as protection from wolves and a lack of knowledge and common sense to arm themselves properly in the wilderness they made the right choice before they became fresh meat for a pack of wolves. It just happend to be a rude awakening to the facts of the real world. The FS got the helicopter there asap as they didn't want the bad publicity of two people being killed and eaten by the vegetarian wolves. If it was just a matter of life and death and not negative publicity they would of been told that help will get there as soon as possible and to just be calm and wait.

Yah, I can imagine the headlines if the mutts had done chowed down. Too bad, would have been helpful for common sense. I do find it sort of interesting about the rapid dispatch of the helo into a wilderness. Any yuppie making such a call would most likely have been SOL. So the possible expense of paying off the family of two employees snarfted in the line of duty was probably far more spendy than a few minutes of helo time.

Two U.S. Forest Service employees from Utah were evacuated by helicopter from the Sawtooth Wilderness in late September after encountering a pack of howling wolves about five miles east of Graham in the Johnson Creek drainage.

Johnson Creek is the southwestern portion of the Sawtooths and in the North Fork of the Boise River drainage.

According to Ed Waldapfel, spokesman for the Sawtooth National Forest, the incident occurred Sept. 23 at about 10 a.m. when the employees observed wolves chasing a bull elk across a meadow.

"A little while later they started hearing wolves howling all around them," Waldapfel said. "They called on their radio or satellite phone and asked their supervisor if they could leave the area."

Waldapfel said the employees, whose names he did not know, were from the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Ogden and were conducting forest inventory work in the Sawtooths, began hiking back to their camp a couple miles away. But they claimed the howls persisted, Waldapfel said.

"No matter which way they went they said they could hear the wolves," he added. "They climbed onto a rock outcropping and continued to communicate with their supervisor.

"They admitted they were very scared and wanted to get out of the area."

Shortly thereafter, Waldapfel said the employees' supervisor contacted the Sawtooth National Forest and "asked for a helicopter to come in and retrieve them."

Waldapfel said the wolves never made any aggressive or threatening moves toward the pair.

"It was the sound of the howls that scared them," Waldapfel said, "and the fact (the employees) were from another part of the country. They're not part of our regular workforce and so they hadn't had training for this kind of wildlife encounter."

Steve Nadeau, the state's wolf program supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, was shocked that wolf howls would elicit a helicopter evacuation in a wilderness area.

"Holy moly—sounds to me like someone's read too many of Grimm's fairy tales," Nadeau said. "I'm flabbergasted that (the Forest Service) would go to that extent over wolves howling in the woods because wolves howl in the woods all the time. That's how they communicate.

"If they felt threatened I guess the Forest Service reacted appropriately. But I can't imagine why the feeling was any more than anyone else walking in the woods."

Lynne Stone, a Stanley resident who regularly observes wolf behavior in the backcountry, said when wolves howl "the echo can come from 360 degrees."

"Especially up in the mountains, where there's a lot of rock, there are great wolf-howl acoustics," she said. "They probably weren't surrounded by wolves."

Stone, who has observed wolves in the mountains around Stanley on 17 different occasions since the spring, said wolves are very focused during a hunt, and the Forest Service employees were not in any danger.

"When wolves are hunting they are on target. They will be oblivious to you," she said. "I'd be more afraid of running into a moose cow with calves, or a black bear with cubs, than encountering howling wolves.

"These guys were not at risk, and it's too bad they didn't take time to enjoy one of the greatest experiences you could ever have in terms of observing wildlife."

Waldapfel said seeing and hearing wolves in the backcountry in the Sawtooth and Boise national forests is not uncommon.

"But for someone from another state or another area where they don't have wolves, I could see where it could be a very frightening experience," he said.

While there are no documented cases of wolves attacking humans in Idaho, Waldapfel acknowledged "these employees probably were not aware of that fact."

Waldapfel said the Sawtooth National Forest will review its training procedures to better prepare out-of-area Forest Service personnel for what they may encounter while in the field.

"We'll spend some time this fall and winter reviewing our current procedures," he said.

The Utah employees were flown to Ketchum after boarding the helicopter. A Forest Service crew returned to the scene to break down their camp and retrieve their gear Sept. 25.



I wonder if our tax dollars where used to clean their underwear too? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

I have to be the wet blanket � the USFS acted exactly as it should have.

My job can be dangerous, and I have to ask employees to go into dangerous situations. The bottom line is that the person in the field gets to make the final call as to what is safe and what is not. If the person in the field wants to leave for safety reasons I will back them all the way, and if it�s my rear end out there I expect the same.

For sure, the field decisions can be second-guessed after the fact. A person that is judged to make crappy decisions, either too cautious or too risky, should be dealt with accordingly. The two USFS workers sound like a couple real pansies, but the USFS is obligated to back them - and other USFS workers in the field have to know that.

Hopefully, the most adventurous duty the two workers get from now on is the mail room.

Sounds like the story IS correct, bigbuck.

15 years ago in my neck of the woods, the Colorado DOW wanted to test a number of high country lakes located in designated wilderness for acidity by dipping water from a helocopter--never touching the ground. The FS denied them permission.

20+ years ago, I had an outfitter friend get caught in a HUGE snowstorm with 4 hunters and a guide inside a designated wilderness at about 11,000 ft. It literally dumped 8-12 FEET in 5 days.

Family hired a heliopter to rescue them after 6 days. The fines for landing in a designated wilderness was more than he made from the hunt...

The NF supervisors in Western Colorado seem to be adament about those things.

On the other hand, a bunch of USGS geologists wanted to do sampling inside Rocky Mountian National Park on the (yuppie) Front Range in an area that was also desgnated wilderness. The Park Service allowed them to fly the equipment and geologists in and back out several times. It raised a small stink.

Flippin' bureacractic yuppies...those guys in the Sawtooths are just plain wimps.

Casey

You can't type, "Well, so long, Its been nice knowing ya, and I'll be sure your next of kin gets your last check."

This was in the Helena IR yesterday, and made for some good lunchtime discussion material. Its funny how a friendly pack of wolves aren't so friendly seeming when there not on TV or in a Zoo.

JOG, many of us either have or have had dangerous jobs but I doubt that the feds would have sent a helicopter into a wilderness area to rescue one of us plain old American citizens. After all, tax payers are not an endangered bunch.

Plus the fact that all the big boss would have to said was what they continue to tell us less informed people is that ' wolves do not harm people.' Most of them ( wolves ) are veggies and the others only weed out the sick and old animals such as elk.

So, I ask, what danger were these geeks facing? I have read some of your thoughts in earlier posts and am sure that you are a government employee doing your best to mislead the U.S. taxpayers about this lousy wolf situation. Is my assumption correct?

I tried to contact Waldapfel but he is out of his office untill the 16th.

If my employer asks me to go somewhere, I�ll agree ONLY if the safety decisions are my call and I trust them to stick by my decision. If I say �get me out� the employer does exactly that � the debate is saved for later. After the debate the employer can promote me, fire me, or whatever. I wouldn�t expect anything different from the USFS and its employees.

What I do and where I go on my own time is a different situation and I wouldn�t expect the USFS or anyone else to bail me out if I got into trouble � real or imagined.

I made it clear in my earlier post what I think of the �danger� the two were in.

As for your assumptions � believe what you want.

"The Utah employees were flown to Ketchum after boarding the helicopter. "

I certanly hope that after they were examined by the doctors at the Ketchum Hospital for any injuries they might have sustained by being so scared, that they were then given competent, in depth, and extensive trauma counselling by the very best trauma psychologists the USFS could muster.

Without that trauma counselling, there's no telling how the future lives of those two brave souls will be affected.

L.W.