Outside: Fact-Checking Idaho’s Wolf Eradication Law

[China]

Fact-Checking Idaho’s Wolf Eradication Law

 

The state just passed a law calling for 90 percent of its wolf population to be killed. It’s based on fear and lies.
 

This week, Idaho governor Brad Little is expected to sign into law a bill that calls for the extermination of 90 percent of the state’s 1,500-strong wolf population. Proponents say wolves are ruining the livelihoods of ranchers and hunters. Opponents say the wolves are necessary to a healthy ecosystem.

 

“They’re destroying ranchers,” said Republican senator Mark Harris, one of the bill’s sponsors, during a debate in the Idaho statehouse. “They’re destroying wildlife. This is a needed bill.”

 

“The politicians behind this bill lack science, ethics, and fact,” Amaroq Weiss, senior West Coast wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Outside. 

 

After being eradicated earlier in the 20th century, wolves were reintroduced to Idaho in 1995. Initially protected by the federal government under the Endangered Species Act, the state legislature worked to establish political control over management of the species. The Idaho Wolf Conservation and Management Plan was passed in 2002, creating a blueprint for the state’s Fish and Game department to take over management of the species upon delisting from the ESA, which took place across the northern Rocky Mountains in 2011. 

 

That original plan, written by the legislature, not Fish and Game, called for a minimum population level of 15 packs. 

 

This new bill, SB 1211, calls for Idaho’s wolf population to be reduced from its current estimated size of 1,556 back to that politically determined level of 150 wolves. To achieve that, it devotes $590,000 to hire contractors to exterminate the animals and removes any limits on the number of wolves hunters may harvest, while freeing them to use any method currently legal in the state, including trapping, the use of night vision equipment, shooting from vehicles, and baiting. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Riggo-toni]

People from Idaho ignoring facts and science so they can kill things...who would have guessed...

 

[China]

Meanwhile in Colorado...

 

Colorado has first litter of gray wolf pups in 80 years

 

Colorado has reported its first gray wolf pups in 80 years, state wildlife officials announced on Wednesday.

 

A litter of at least three pups along with their parents were spotted last weekend by both a state biologist and a district wildlife manager. Wolf litters tend to contain between four to six pups, so it remains possible there could be more.

 

“Colorado is now home to our first wolf litter since the 1940s. We welcome this historic den and the new wolf family to Colorado,” said Gov. Jared Polis (D).

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[China]

Cattle ranchers don't want Montana wolves moved to Colorado

 

The Montana Stockgrowers Association has asked its state's wildlife agency to reject any requests to capture wolves in Montana to be transplanted in Colorado, where voters narrowly passed a wolf reintroduction plan.

 

The Montana cattle ranchers say Colorado ranchers don't have any management tools in place to protect their property from the predators.

 

Under the voter-approved measure, wolves must start being moved to Colorado by the end of 2023.

 

Colorado wildlife managers have said their preference is to capture wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to bring to Colorado.

 

Wildlife officials in Montana say Colorado hasn't requested any wolves yet.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Judge Throws Out Trump-Era Rollbacks on Endangered Species

 

Under Trump, officials rolled back protections for the northern spotted owl, gray wolves and other species
 

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a host of actions by the Trump administration to roll back protections for endangered or threatened species, a year after the Biden administration said it was moving to strengthen such species protections.

 

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in Northern California eliminated the Trump-era rules even as two wildlife agencies under President Joe Biden are reviewing or rescinding the regulations. The decision restores a range of protections under the Endangered Species Act — including some that date to the 1970s — while the reviews are completed. Environmental groups hailed the decision, which they said sped up needed protections and critical habitat designations for threatened species, including salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Tigar's ruling “spoke for species desperately in need of comprehensive federal protections without compromise,” said Kristen Boyles, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice. “Threatened and endangered species do not have the luxury of waiting under rules that do not protect them.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

What to know about reintroducing wolves in Colorado

 

Colorado will reintroduce 10 to 15 wolves a year on the Western Slope starting in 2024 until reaching a maximum of 50 as part of a voter-approved initiative.

 

Why it matters: The effort is the first voter-approved wildlife recovery plan in the country to be implemented. In all other cases, the federal government directs the management through the Endangered Species Act.

 

Driving the news: The details in a 293-page draft plan released Friday by Gov. Jared Polis' administration outline how the state will rebuild a once-native species after it was hunted to extinction in the early 1900s.

 

Two zones under consideration for winter release points are located along the Interstate 70 corridor between Glenwood Springs and Vail, southward toward the Roaring Fork Valley and the U.S. 50 area between Montrose in the west and Monarch Pass east of Gunnison.

 

The specific areas are yet-to-be determined, but will remain 60 miles from tribal lands and state borders because wolves roam beyond their territory.

 

What they're saying: "Wolves generally fear people and rarely present a threat to human safety," Eric Odell, species conservation program manager, told Colorado Parks and Wildlife during a presentation.

 

Catch up quick: In 2020, voters narrowly passed (50.9% to 49.1%) Proposition 114, authored by wolf advocates, to require the state to reintroduce gray wolves.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Xameil]

I read this thread and kinda have ro laugh. Until recently, NYDEC has claimed the wolf was gone in NY. Because ya know, the wolf reaches the Canadian border, realizes it doesnt have papers and leaves.

 

Whereas most of us who camp, hike, and spend a significant time out in the Adirondacks know the wolf has been back in the NY for over a decade. They havent harmed anything, and keep away from people and cattle up north. 

 

 

[China]

Meanwhile in Michigan:

 

Michigan’s gray wolf population stable for last decade, state says

 

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is home to more than 600 gray wolves spread across 136 organized packs, numbers which experts say show the species’ population remained stable there for more than the last decade.

 

Researchers with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said the estimated minimum number of gray wolves in the U.P. is 631, give or take 49 wolves. The average number of wolves per pack is between four and five.

 

State wildlife officials recently released this data from the 2022 Michigan gray wolf population, a scientific wintertime analysis done every two years across the U.P., including Drummond, Neebish, and Sugar islands. Wolves on Isle Royale are not included in the count and are managed by the National Park Service.

 

Cody Norton, DNR wildlife biologist and wolf specialist, said the state’s gray wolf population has not statistically varied since 2011, which indicates the species may have reached its biological carrying capacity. That means an equilibrium exists between available habitat and the number of animals of a particular species that can be supported there over time.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[abdcskins]

****ing disgusting.

[Fan since a Fetus]

11 hours ago, abdcskins said:

****ing disgusting.

Im afraid to watch that. Is it just about people finding excuses to kill these animals? It already disgusts me. In fact, disgust is not a strong enough word.

[abdcskins]

33 minutes ago, Fan since a Fetus said:

Im afraid to watch that. Is it just about people finding excuses to kill these animals? It already disgusts me. In fact, disgust is not a strong enough word.

 

Honestly I was just reacting to the original post, anytime I see anything about humans killing wild animals for no reason I get disgusted - and I agree disgust doesn't encapsulate everything. Enraged as well. 

 

Looks like there are some more positive articles in this thread as well. Wild animal populations should thrive. The only time I fan possibly think they should be culled is if there are so many that they are walking onto highways and getting hit by cars, in the case of deer and stuff like that. But wolves? C'mon the article said there were 1,500 in the entire state of Idaho. Let them live their beautiful lives.

[Fan since a Fetus]

1 hour ago, abdcskins said:

 

Honestly I was just reacting to the original post, anytime I see anything about humans killing wild animals for no reason I get disgusted - and I agree disgust doesn't encapsulate everything. Enraged as well. 

 

Looks like there are some more positive articles in this thread as well. Wild animal populations should thrive. The only time I fan possibly think they should be culled is if there are so many that they are walking onto highways and getting hit by cars, in the case of deer and stuff like that. But wolves? C'mon the article said there were 1,500 in the entire state of Idaho. Let them live their beautiful lives.

plus, didn’t we learn anything from what we did to Yellowstone? they killed off the wolves. then the other animals overpopulated and starting killing the vegetation. Yellowstone was in a bad way.

 

 They brought back wolves and the whole park is starting to thrive again. 
 

I’ll look for the place later, but there is a fish farm I read about, I think it was Europe, that is all natural. No fake food or over crowding. An interviewer went there and they had a very healthy fish population. 
 

they didn’t do anything to stop prey from eating the fish. The interviewer saw a huge group of birds feeding and questioned the owner. The owner said that is how they do quality control. If the birds aren’t showing up, and the birds came a long distance to feed, then he knows that there is something seriously wrong on the farm. As long as the birds continue to show, then they know they have a really good quality of product. 

seeing pictures, you would have never guessed that it was a fish farm.

[China]

 

[757SeanTaylor21]

The original post is absolutely sick