That's how much money has been allotted by the Fish & Game Dept, livestock groups, and other sources to attempt to reduce the number of wolves by 90%. Nearly 500 wolves were killed in Idaho in 2021. Even if the wolf numbers could be reduced by 90%, we'd still have more wolves than what was in the pre-introduction plan. [b][/b] At the bottom is an opposing editorial written by someone who's not so enthusiastic about it. The author is a woman from Sun Valley, Idaho's cesspool of liberalism. Let's just say that she doesn't hold the majority opinion.
BOISE — State officials on Wednesday requested $392,000 from the general fund to kill wolves in Idaho, and with other revenue sources will have just over $1 million for that purpose starting this summer.
The Wolf Depredation Control Board made the request to the Legislature’s powerful budget setting committee.
The five-member wolf control board is contained within the governor’s office and allocates money for control actions approved by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission.
The board’s general fund request is the same as last year, but a change in Idaho law last year is sending an additional $190,000 to the board from fees paid by hunters and trappers to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
Besides general fund money, the Wolf Depredation Control Board will also receive $300,000 from Fish and Game and $110,000 from livestock producers. The money goes into the Wolf Control Fund, which has an existing balance of about $230,000.
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee is setting state agency budgets for fiscal year 2023, which starts in July. It will make a decision on the wolf control board’s general fund request later this session.
Idaho expanded wolf killing last year with legislation that lawmakers said could lead to killing 90% of the state’s wolves, which at that time had an estimated population of 1,500.
Fish and Game spokesman Roger Phillips said Wednesday the agency was finalizing its current population estimate and would release details next week. Phillips said that since July, 266 wolves were killed — hunters in the state have killed 134 and trappers have killed 132.
The Wolf Control Board signs off on paying the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to kill Idaho wolves. In 2021, the federal agency killed 40 wolves, down from 74 in 2020, Jared Hedelius, the agency’s Idaho director, told the budget committee on Wednesday.
Chanel Tewalt, deputy director of the Idaho Department of Agriculture, told lawmakers that 65 confirmed wolf kills of livestock occurred between July 1 and Nov. 30 last year.
Idaho lawmakers last year made significant changes involving killing wolves, including allowing Fish and Game to enter into contracts with private entities to kill wolves. Fish and Game late last year announced it had reached an agreement with a nonprofit hunting group to reimburse the expenses for a proven wolf kill.
Besides setting up the reimbursement program, the new law also expands killing methods to include trapping and snaring wolves on a single hunting tag, no restriction on hunting hours, using night-vision equipment with a permit, using bait and dogs, and allowing hunting from motor vehicles. It also authorizes year-round wolf trapping on private property.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in September, at the request of environmental groups concerned about the expanded wolf killing in Idaho and Montana, announced a yearlong review to see if wolves in the U.S. West should be relisted under the Endangered Species Act. Lawsuits have also been filed challenging aspects of the expanded wolf killing.
496 Idaho wolves killed in 2021 . . .and in Yellowstone, 20 wolves have been killed just outside of the park’s boundaries.
State agencies of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are bent on undoing all the ecological benefits that wolves have brought to their ecosystems. All three of these agencies are also seeking to hunt grizzly bears – for sport!
We cannot trust these state agencies to manage native predators. Lethal management for the benefit of hunters and livestock grazers, often on public lands. The killers of Idaho wolves have received rewards of $1000 to 2500 paid by the “Foundation for Wildlife Management” to their members. They keep the dead animal and sell the fur. F4WM has received grants from IDFG and legislative funding from the Wolf Control Board to pay these bounties, more than $108,000 for 2021.
Wildlife advocates, scientists, and conservationists from all over the country have begged Deb Haaland director of the Interior Department, and Martha Williams, the interim director of US Fish and Wildlife Service, to stop the slaughter. They have refused to act.
If you care about wildlife, please speak out! The Endangered Species Coalition website has a letter to the editor that you can submit to your local media. Our hope appears to be the Biden administration who could stop the slaughter of wolves -- and the destruction of your natural heritage.
And all they’d have to do is put an ad in the local paper stating “Go get em, boys!”
That's been done. You can buy an unlimited number of wolf tags for $11 each (resident price) and in much of the state, the season's open year round. In the rest of the state, it's open for 11 months. The problem is that you don't just run out and shoot you a wolf. Idaho has 86k square miles. That's roughly 43 square miles per wolf. You don't find one behind every sagebrush.
Why don’t they sell licenses and allow hunter to kill them. Lots of people I think would pay for a license. Versus using tax payer money to kill them.
Idaho has been selling wolf tags for quite a few years. Wolves are not only a lot smarter than people think they are, they're very difficult to hunt.
Although I am no longer able to hunt due to physical problems and old age, I always carried a wolf tag when i could hunt elk and deer. Never saw but one and that was only for a few seconds across an old burn before it disappeared into the distant tree line.
The couple of guys I know who've killed wolves did so just by accident when they were hunting elk.
It says...."allowing hunting from motor vehicles".........I wonder if that means airplanes? because I think baiting then shooting from an airplane works pretty darn good. That's great news for Idaho, there needs to be a co-ordinated Wolf kill in the entire Pacific Northwest, otherwise any success will be short lived for the reasons already stated in above posts.
If there is not enough current hunting pressure to keep the wolf population in control, then incentivize hunters. For each wolf killed, refund 100% of a deer license - out of state hunters included. For every two wolves killed, refund 100% of an elk license.
Would this work? Or maybe my idea has some holes in it?
Foundation for Wildlife Management will reimburse every hunter cost up to 2000 dollars per wolf right now. That's fuel, ammunition, vehicle purchase, food, lodging, license fees, etc. - If anyone needed a go ahead to kill them - there it is. There's one wolf for every 47 miles though - good luck unless a pack runs across your lap while you're diddling around on the ridges.
I've always carried more than one wolf tag and hunted them aggressively. They are very, very difficult to find even using bait. I've only seen one and only for a few seconds. I've never killed one in the lower 48. By comparison, I've had hundreds of bears and dozens of cats in the crosshairs.
If there is not enough current hunting pressure to keep the wolf population in control, then incentivize hunters. For each wolf killed, refund 100% of a deer license - out of state hunters included. For every two wolves killed, refund 100% of an elk license.
Would this work? Or maybe my idea has some holes in it?
GOV"T doesn't think like that, most are there to have a secure job with benefits/pension. They're not looking to give department/budget money away.
HeeHaw, quote, "Government Aid is the government taking a quart of blood, out of you left arm, putting it in your right arm, and spilling half of it on the way."
Oh Oh, the great wolf crusaders BHA trolls Culdumb and Buzzh are going to come on here soon and say wolves only kill the sick animals and actually help the moose, elk and deer.
They could use the money to pay hunters bounty to kill them. They have devastated the elk population, and now are killing cows, sheep and other livestock. Our pioneers ancestors killed bears and wolves to protect their livestock.
Oh Oh, the great wolf crusaders Culdumb and Buzzh are going to come on here soon and say wolves only kill the sick animals and actually help the moose, elk and deer.
Ya who the fuuck didn’t see this coming.. just look at the millions and millions of $$ spent, that coulda been spent on managing species folks care about and that could actually make $$$. What a god damn farce
Yep, remove some restrictions, allow leghold traps. Idaho may already, just saying. With a longer season, allowing trapping, the next step would be targeted bounties in problem areas, those numbers will fall.
In WI 80% or so were caught with traps, the MB-750 the premiere choice.
You would think Colorado would learn from this but......
I'd have thought the same, but I spent time in CO years back, when it was still a solid red state. Obviously things have changed. Front range city folks foist liberal policy onto 98% of the rest of the state. Same thing in most other states, I suppose.
But now they have wolves in the Flat Tops. Won't be long until they decimate one of the greatest elk hunting opportunities there ever was for average guys. Sure the Flat tops got hammered with hunters, but we at least always saw a fair amount of animals, and if you hunted hard and didn't mind north facing slopes with dead fall jungles, there was usually opportunities.
Can't help but think that it's all part of the plan. Things just dovetail together a little too nicely: Get rid of the game, get rid of the hunters. Get rid of the hunters, get rid of more gun owners and gun rights advocates. Get rid of more gun owners . . .
A bounty would not help a hunter get w/in range of a wolf. I have hunted all over Idaho every year since delisting and have yet to get a shot. Wolves cover a lot of territory and you have to be in the right place at the right time. Wolves don't live in easy country nor are they dumb. Hunting Himalayan Snow Cocks in the Rubies is an easier hunt.
South Dakota just spent more than that on coyotes last year. 11k song dogs at the tube of 175 a piece or something like that. All part of managing them
Foundation for Wildlife Management will reimburse every hunter cost up to 2000 dollars per wolf right now. That's fuel, ammunition, vehicle purchase, food, lodging, license fees, etc. - If anyone needed a go ahead to kill them - there it is. There's one wolf for every 47 miles though - good luck unless a pack runs across your lap while you're diddling around on the ridges.
I've always carried more than one wolf tag and hunted them aggressively. They are very, very difficult to find even using bait. I've only seen one and only for a few seconds. I've never killed one in the lower 48. By comparison, I've had hundreds of bears and dozens of cats in the crosshairs.
Thank you - you told me a lot that I did not know.
SOurdough, I have not heard from you in years. I am glad you are still well. As for the pic of the trap, that is the best by far. From trapping coons and rats I learned long ago, a trap is quiet, it is incredibly patient,,, and has 24/7/365 to wait. While us hunters want to see action in a few hours.. I set a trap and go to bed . The trap does the work for me. I just decided tonight that I am going to start trapping fox. I am so tired of fox on my cam almost every night, and I love rabbit hunting and very seldom even see them anymore. Way too many varmints out there.
That involves a lot of collateral other-species kill, but it is likely the cheapest. Helicopter gunships (to borrow a phrase from the "lupus uber alls " dickheads,) are the most effective (but not cheap!) to reduce wolf populations.
It gets even speedier if you manage to burn up one of the choppers while refueling, as happened up here, once upon a time.
Yep, remove some restrictions, allow leghold traps. Idaho may already, just saying. With a longer season, allowing trapping, the next step would be targeted bounties in problem areas, those numbers will fall.
In WI 80% or so were caught with traps, the MB-750 the premiere choice.
Wow, that's a shame. Wish they were in Steamboat Springs Old Town. Or Vile. Or, or or.
I used to be "reasonable" and thought it was cool woofs were repopulating from Canada according to Diane Boyd. Figured we'd get to a nice small number to establish a population that would survive and not be endangered. 30 years on, dang, that's what happens when you're reasonable and zealots lie to your face. And no, while I've seen plenty of tracks and heard a few, I've only seen one and there was no chance of a shot, it was like 700 yards.
SOurdough, I have not heard from you in years. I am glad you are still well. As for the pic of the trap, that is the best by far. From trapping coons and rats I learned long ago, a trap is quiet, it is incredibly patient,,, and has 24/7/365 to wait. While us hunters want to see action in a few hours.. I set a trap and go to bed . The trap does the work for me. I just decided tonight that I am going to start trapping fox. I am so tired of fox on my cam almost every night, and I love rabbit hunting and very seldom even see them anymore. Way too many varmints out there.
A 750 or Alaskan #9 are a good ticket but given the terrain and snow depths a good snare man would be more effective by far. Over fresh kills snares can be set back along the incoming trails and multiple catches are far more likely. The damage the wolves do there and now in Wyoming and Colorado, anywhere for that matter, is done mostly in the spring when the pack hunts hard for the pups, they decimate the newborn ungulates. An elk or deer calf is hardly a meal for one wolf not to mention a pack of 80plus pound carnivores. I am very remote in Northern MN and have seen what they can do to a moose and deer herd. Terrible. Seen and listened to a pack tear into a birthing cow moose killing calf and fawn. Ugly thing to listen to. I have the wolf pack cross the lake ice here in broad daylight and see them often enough. I can tell you were I allowed to take a shot I may get one or two but they would never cross in daylight again. Very smart and adaptive animals. You good folks in the west have a serious problem coming with those wolves. ANY way possible get ahead of it. A last note, I know a few pilots who fly for oil and mineral companies up across northern Canada and parts farther up. Any of them can tell you of the killing fields in the winter on lakes where wolves catch gathered caribou. Wolves do kill for fun when the opportunity arises don’t let anyone tell you differently.
I'am farther east than Idaho in Michigan went and sold my property in Michigan's UP 330 acres because of the wolves.....there needed to be a hunt and or trapping at least 10 years ago....it was a joke the attempt at a very limited hunt several years back and not even in my area.....only 43 out of the quote of 80 were shot.... Deer numbers have plummeted I would only see tracks on less than halve of the property last year ....my property locks in 10 sq. miles no one had access to accept me.....one hunting blind I haven't see a deer track for the past 10 years because of wolves....in that blind in the passed I shot many large bucks.... I don't mind that there are wolves if I was allowed to harvest some to help keep the population in check..... Its not only the deer population that has been decimated by wolves all animals have been wiped out or are at very low numbers....there's miles of trails that grouse are no longer seen at all because of high wolf populations.... Would trap every fall-winter I went from 80-100 coyotes with little to no wolf sight to 15-20 coyotes in the same area catching several wolves....
Allow trapping Allow baiting and shooting 24/7/365 250$ bounty and allow the hunter/trapper to sell the fur
Wolves will be gone fast
Your idea didn’t work in the slightest.
There has been a $500 bill reimbursement for wolves in Idaho for years. You keep the fur. Hunting is also allowed 24/7/365 nowadays, and has been like that on private property for years.
When they upped the reimbursement to $2500 a few months ago in some units, more people got off the couch, but it really didn’t put a dent in the population.
Allow trapping Allow baiting and shooting 24/7/365 250$ bounty and allow the hunter/trapper to sell the fur
Wolves will be gone fast
Your idea didn’t work in the slightest.
There has been a $500 bill reimbursement for wolves in Idaho for years. You keep the fur. Hunting is also allowed 24/7/365 nowadays, and has been like that on private property for years.
When they upped the reimbursement to $2500 a few months ago in some units, more people got off the couch, but it really didn’t put a dent in the population.
There is a reason poison was needed last time.
Yep. like qwk stated, you can do all of the above.
Even though many people say the wolf population is growing like crazy and nobody can kill them, I know a few guys who have schedules and live right in wolf country that allows them to hunt and trap most of the winter. Some do quite well considering wolves are spread thin over a lot of hard-to-reach country.
One guy, I know, has trapped 38 in 4 years. Not sure how he did last winter, but I'd bet the number is likely well over 40 now. My cousin shot 4 out of a pack of 6 over 2 weeks when they showed up on his ranch last winter. A suppressor and being able to shoot 400 plus yards made the difference.
There are guys that have pretty much taken to just trapping and targeting wolves as their preferred type of hunting. Being able to access wolf country and having the time, energy, skill and $, to do it is a big factor.
Allow trapping Allow baiting and shooting 24/7/365 250$ bounty and allow the hunter/trapper to sell the fur
Wolves will be gone fast
Your idea didn’t work in the slightest.
There has been a $500 bill reimbursement for wolves in Idaho for years. You keep the fur. Hunting is also allowed 24/7/365 nowadays, and has been like that on private property for years.
When they upped the reimbursement to $2500 a few months ago in some units, more people got off the couch, but it really didn’t put a dent in the population.
There is a reason poison was needed last time.
Close but not quite. State law prevails and that strictly prohibits night hunting. The IDFG can't overrule that one. That's reason the IDFG got so much negative press a couple years ago when they used sharp shooters to kill about 200 elk on private land to thin out the elk. They weren't able to open it for hunting because the elk were only moving in at night and state law prohibits night time hunting. Only the legislature can change that rule.
A friend of mine who hunts wolves advised you can get a permit for a thermal scope for hunting . Im checking with IDFG next week to verify. If so can open up hunting option s for wolves.
Originally Posted by Rock Chuck
Originally Posted by qwk
Originally Posted by CBB
Allow trapping Allow baiting and shooting 24/7/365 250$ bounty and allow the hunter/trapper to sell the fur
Wolves will be gone fast
Your idea didn’t work in the slightest.
There has been a $500 bill reimbursement for wolves in Idaho for years. You keep the fur. Hunting is also allowed 24/7/365 nowadays, and has been like that on private property for years.
When they upped the reimbursement to $2500 a few months ago in some units, more people got off the couch, but it really didn’t put a dent in the population.
There is a reason poison was needed last time.
Close but not quite. State law prevails and that strictly prohibits night hunting. The IDFG can't overrule that one. That's reason the IDFG got so much negative press a couple years ago when they used sharp shooters to kill about 200 elk on private land to thin out the elk. They weren't able to open it for hunting because the elk were only moving in at night and state law prohibits night time hunting. Only the legislature can change that rule.
Yes, you can hunt wolves at night(spotlights/nightvision optics) with written permission from landowner or signed permission by F&G head honcho, when on public.
Yes, you can hunt wolves at night(spotlights/nightvision optics) with written permission from landowner or signed permission by F&G head honcho, when on public.
You're right. I missed that part. I wonder what it takes to get permission from the IDFG on public land, or if it's possible at all.
Hunting Hours: A hunter may take wolves outside of hunting hours, only if: • On private land, the hunter is the landowner or has written permission from the landowner to hunt outside of hunting hours. • On public land (government-owned land), the hunter has obtained a permit from IDFG to hunt outside of hunting hours. IDFG permits may be obtained from Regional Offices. See page 98 for public lands closed to hunting
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