Right now they're classified as game animals. This bill would change it from game animals to predators in most of the state. The exception would be a large very rugged mountain area in central ID. As predators, they could be hunted from motorized vehicles, planes, etc. I would expect this to pass but you can bet that there will be lawsuits. They hope to reduce the wolves to about 500 which is closer to the number of breeding pairs in the original introduction plan.

One problem I can see with this is dropping the requirement for tags. The IDFG is funded almost entirely by license and tag sales. If this is implemented, they'll lose the tag sales. As it is, tags are priced very low, about $11 for a resident, and many hunters buy one just in case (me included). They would lose a source of income yet they would still be required to manage the wolves. That management has to be paid for somehow and it would be made up by pulling money from game animal management.


KEITH RIDLER Associated Press
BOISE — A house panel on Tuesday introduced legislation allowing the use of snowmobiles, ATVs, powered parachutes and other methods to hunt and kill wolves year-round and with no limits in most of Idaho.

The House Resources and Conservation Committee cleared the way for a public hearing on the proposed law backers say is needed because Idaho has too many wolves.

Wolves could be hunted year-round in the state with no limits in all but a rugged area of central Idaho extending from about Challis to Grangeville. Specifically, the legislation reclassifies wolves outside of that area from game animals to predators.

“When you make that reclassification to a predator, you still have to have a hunting license to shoot that predator, but there are no seasons, no limits,” said former Republican Sen. Jeff Siddoway, filling in for a senator who is out with COVID-19. He said wolves could also be hunted from helicopters and airplanes.

Siddoway said the plan is to reduce Idaho’s wolves from about 1,500 to 500.

The legislation says that once 500 wolves or fewer remain in the state, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission would be authorized to review wolf management policies to make sure there are at least 500 wolves and 50 packs.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game tracks wolf numbers using various methods, including cameras, and listed the 2020 population at 1,556 wolves, about the same as in 2019.

Wolves were protected in Idaho under the Endangered Species Act until being delisted in 2011.

Wolves are managed by Fish and Game under its Idaho Wolf Conservation and Management Plan.

Challis to Grangeville... Discrimination...


Jayco👍

I recall wolf proponents saying 360 wolves for the entire NW would be enough..

Liberal greenies always LIE. always.

They knew before they started that 360 was a fake number that would be ignored.

I don't think it has changed much, there are those that just take care of business when it involves the wolves especially when there killing there pets and horses and in the so called protected area... Wolves are smart, I don't this bill would do much..


Jayco

Agreed, hunting does very little to control the numbers. More hunting won’t make much difference, other than attracting more out of state hunters for “opportunities” to helicopter hunt wolves, and other “exciting” ways to kill a wolf. One out of state license replaces a lot of $11 tag fees.

Last I looked, a non-res hunting license was a shade over $150 and a wolf tag's about $30. Many non-res hunters buy a wolf tag just in case as $30 doesn't bankrupt them.

They started bringing them here in Colorado. You can see the difference in the herds already. Good bye elk.

Condense it for me, I'm from Rio Linda, are the wolves going read and abide by this bill?

Gee, I'd hate to see less funding for the Idaho Fish Gestapo. How would they afford more remote control deer and tracking devices for people's vehicles.

Bb

Drones and Hellfires.....

They must really be cutting in to their Out of State hunting revenues. That's usually the thing that wakes up politicians.

Anything that kills them off is fine with me. They are smart SOB's - doubt it would even be possible to kill them off again without poison.

So use poison, a dead wolf is a good wolf how it got there doesn't matter much.

This. Idaho is pretty much hunting them non stop now. I am fine with this bill, but I don't think it will create a significant increase in wolf harvest.

The answer to the wolf problem is easy and inexpensive.

Aerial bombardment of wolf habitat with poisoned meatballs.

Agreed. I hope for the sake of the wildlife in your state, you are able to get their numbers reduced.
Our wolf numbers here range from 3000 to 10000 depending on who you talk to. I hunted deer in
Emily, MN this past fall. Emily is in North Central MN. Plenty of wolf tracks. They're heading South,
and no unelected bureaucrat in the MN DNR is going to do a damn thing about it.
We don't have a wolf problem. Yeah, right.

My close friend trapped one his first year living in Idaho.
I'm 0 for 3 on my last wolf tags there...but I'm trying.

My good friend (and neighbor) got two local Idaho wolves last month....there's no shortage.

You can thank buzzh and his pro wolf agenda for getting wolves in Colorado

This^^^ people better really start looking hard at what organization they give there money to.

Less is good
More beef for you.

I can see only a couple things it will change. The IDFG won't sell any tags and outfitters or others with money can use aircraft to hunt them.

You and lots others posting here don’t understand the Endangered Species Act do you?

That won't do anybody much good without radio collars.Once in a while we get lucky and find an un collared bunch in the open, but not alot. 90% of the time they are in heavy timber and are hard to locate even with a collar.

When is the white male who gets up and goes to work going to be added to that Act?

Lots of wolves in Alaska and the NW Territories. They are not endangered.

We did quite well for for nearly 80 years with extremely limited numbers of wolves west of Kansas in the lower 48.

There was one and only one motivation for repopulating the Rocky Mountain states and Oregon and Washington with wolves. That motivation was plain and obvious from the time Hornocker and company put the first wolf into their Idaho containment facility.

The wolves were translocated to Idaho so that they could eliminate hunting opportunities in the West as a means to advance gun control agendas. It was believed that elimination of hunting culture would bring about an end to gun culture.

Yep you clearly don’t understand the ESA.


Seems you get you info from Lobowatch and that loon Toby Bridges.

They’re not endangered you fugking moron!!!

The ESA does not care what you think. Have you read it as it pertains to wolves? Didn’t think so.

The wolves are no longer on the ESA endangered list.

The ESA has been grossly violated in this wolf thing. Idaho had native wolves since time began. I saw some myself in Stanley Basin about 5 years before the introduction and I saw tracks several times. Nobody can mistake a wolf track for a coyote. Under the ESA, they should have put protections in place to try to preserve and propagate the native gene pool. Instead, they brought in foreign wolves and probably within a year the natives were killed or bred out of existence. It was all totally illegal.

Wrong. You need to read AND understand the Idaho wolf management plan and the triggers that will realist.


I can tell you but I can’t understand it for you.

Would this allow the use of hounds?

Wolves have been removed from the national list, not just Idaho's. That's not saying Biden won't put them back on it and I'm sure he's under considerable pressure to do it.

Wrong again. Idaho’s wolf management plan had to be approved by the feds to delist. There are triggers in the plan that can put them back on the ESA.


Again read and understand the plan.

I just read that in '19 ('20 figures aren't out yet), Idaho sold 45k wolf tags and harvested 118. At $11.25 for a resident tag, that's about $.5 mill that they won't take in for wolf management if this happens.

Jeez Dude, you need to learn the meaning of these three words:

There
They're
Their

Hounds and wolves are a recipe for disaster.

I bet there were a lot more killed if trapping numbers are added. Probably more than double. I know here in Montana the total take has been close to 250 a year forthe last several years. I bet Idaho is at that number or more. That doesn't include wolves removed for livestock depredation.

They kill your hounds.

Poison kills too many other predators - bears, mtn. lions, coyotes etc. for it to be a viable option.

Exactly but there are those that do it anyway without carrying about family pets and other critters that eat it..There's been a run around here on poisening animals and it appears it's the family pets that pay the price,not the wolves....And the words out to find these nut jobs and prosecute..


Jayco👍

Idaho needs to be careful on the wolf regulations, these animal right groups keep trying to close wolf seasons. what Idaho should do is sell unlimited wolf resident license for $20.00 and each wolf tag is $5.00 and non- resident wolf license is $40.00 and wolf tags are $5.00, .each wolf hunter or trapper per year are allowed 5 wolves per year and party hunting and trapping is legal every year. wolf season starts September 1st ends May 1st . wolves may still be killed if harming anything anytime. that`s the easier way to make wolf season and quit worrying about details ,who cares if they use dogs or anything else wolves just need wolf populations lowered permanently. i live in Minnesota we have way to many wolves and liberals protecting these nasty wolves too. as Troy the the alligator hunter says > SHOOTEM !

I just found the numbers. In '19, Idaho trappers got 200 on top of the 118 for the hunters. Starting with the 20-21 season, you can buy 15 hunting tags in addition to 15 trapping tags. However, in '19, only 5 people took more than 10 total. They aren't that easy to get.

What du Fug you talkin bout Williz? grin Wolf license? Wolf tag?

Around here you buy one hunting license (resident or nonresident). It allows one to hunt varmints, small game, upland game, waterfowl, and big game. For big game, including wolves, one must buy a tag for each animal to be killed. Waterfowl and other migratory birds require a "duck stamp"

A properly run poison campaign would have very little kill of non target species.

It should be done in the heart of winter in deep snow, far from civilization and pets. You might get a few fox or coyotes, but it would be very few in the heart of wolf habitat. You might get a few cats and corvids, but that would be a small and temporary price to pay to exterminate the wolves on a permanent basis.

Wolf habitat and denning areas are easy to find from a helicopter when the snow is six or eight feet deep. Poisoned bait can be dropped right on the wolf's door step.

10,000 exhausted elk will thank you.

Hounds worked very well here in Wisconsin, they couldn’t close our season fast enough before the quota was exceeded in all 6 zones. And hounds are why.

We had a wolf hunt in Wisconsin. The season was notified very fast and started on a Monday. Many of the tag winners did not even have enough time to hunt cause it was over almost as fast as it started. We reached 200 wolf kills in less than 2 days. By noon the second day the DNR had to start closing the units fast cause of fear there would be more harvest than 200. The tree huggers count the wolves here in Wisconsin. They way under count the wolves on purpose, saying there are about 1,000 in the state. The wolf hunt all but proves there are a lot more than 1,000 wolves in the state cause there is no way 2,000 license winners can wipe out 20% of the population in 1 1/2 days of any species in such a short notice. Tree huggers lie about everything, even wolf numbers. ... And like one poster said, they are not that easy . He is right, I have yet to see one up in NW. Wis. where I have had land for 32 yrs. now.