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Montana Hunters Howling Over Wolves
From the Daily Inter Lake:
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials in Northwest Montana are hearing from many hunters concerned about the rapid growth of packs and wolf numbers and an obvious decline in white-tailed deer populations.
The reason, Williams said, is that the number of wolf packs has grown from 12 to 28 in Northwest Montana since 2005. And the number of packs throughout the broader Northwest Montana Recovery Area grew from 19 in 2005 to 36 in 2007.
Meanwhile, a decline in the white-tailed deer population has likely been under way for the past two years.
easy solution, hunt the wolves.
Posted by: sam | December 19, 2008 at 11:40 AM
The damage to ranchers is bad aloso, they may be compensated for the loss of an animal, but not for the damage to fences(spooked cattle can wreck a lot)moving the herd to 'safer pastures, additional feed costs, lost unborn calves due to stress, etc.
the other thing is that those who were in favor of re-introducing wolves forgot the human factor- for thousand of years native americans hunted the wolves, so there was a balance.
Posted by: rj | December 19, 2008 at 12:14 PM
This continues to pi$$ me off. The tree huggers actually will block the hunting of wolves in the meanwhile, game continues a decline. When wolves start dying of starvation, the outcry will be deafening. Wolves should be hunted. Add on to that the attacks on people by wolves....there was a reason why our forefathers hunted and eventually eradicated wolves in the majority of the lower 48.
Posted by: AZ88 | December 19, 2008 at 07:11 PM
Some tough choices (for the elected) are coming. If they continue to protect the Canadian wolves under the false premise they are endangered, the NATIVE game species - the elk, deer, moose, and sheep will be basically wiped out. If they choose to restore the populations of the native game species, the unchecked population explosion of the invasive [specie] Canadian wolves will have to be reduced and managed. It's a no-brainer for those with common sense, the wolves must be managed but there will be much wailing, moaning, and 'throwing themselves prostrate' [and filing of lawsuits] from a tiny, vocal set of people.
JMH
Posted by: JMH | December 20, 2008 at 12:19 PM
The bigger threat to hunting is ranching. The ranchers have pillaged the ecosystem for their own profit. They have stopped the restoration of the buffalo, tried to stop the restoration of the grizzly and wolf, and have influenced the game departments to allow the wholesale slaughter of prairie dogs. I'm glad the wolves are back. Those hunters who object are the types that think the game and land belongs to them. Wolves have a right ot exist and eat too.
AZSS,
There is not a single documented case of wolves attacking people. And the forefathers also hunted deer, turkey, elk, bison, and Indians to eradication. We have evolved past that mentality, at least some of us have. The forefathers did not have a very good concept of wildlife management, so using them as an example does not make sense.
IJ,
the Native Americans at no time deliberately set out to eradicate wolves like Euro-Americans did, so that is another bad example.
JMH,
the wolves from Canada are the same species as those originally found there, so they are native. What is not native are the cattle roaming around eating all the grass. Also, pheasants are not native to Montana, so get rid of those.
Posted by: Huntergatherer | December 21, 2008 at 09:26 PM
Perhaps the same people that factually are poaching 10% of all Rocky Mountain Wolves annually are the reason there is a decline in other game species. After all, if you poach one animal what prevents you from poaching another? I want hard facts and all I see his politics concerning wolves.
Posted by: William | December 22, 2008 at 03:23 AM
Hunter gatherer NAILED IT!
Those who are against reintroduction of wolves are either ignorant of the issues ( no suprise there ) or have a narrow view of nature.
Please tell me how the wolves, elk, deer, bison, etc survived for ohhhhhh lets say 10,000 years BEFORE our so called Game Management plan(s) came into effect?.
Save your pitty for the Ranchers, they have sucked the Government Titt for to long. Their cattle trash the natural environment ( I live in Oregon and the eastern side of the Mountains is a waste land )for far to long. I am sick of my favorite Trout streams getting trashed for free range catlle ON PUBLIC LANDS.
Where ever the Wolves have been re introduced Racnhers have been re inbursed for cattle taken by Wolves.
So what if the white tail deer populations decline?. That means you just have to work harder when hunting, which I think pisses off some hunters more than anything.
Anyone hunted in Alaska?. If so you will know that the Elk north of the border are much harder to hunt BECAUSE they have natural predators that they are constantly on the look out for.
I for one do not consider myself a tree hugger ( this label gets thown around anytime you dissagree with the "Group" think Hunting crowds ).
I say let the Wolves return and set aside more wild area for them to live and let what pathetic little wild areas we have left survive albeit in a micro version of the past.
Posted by: muddog | December 29, 2008 at 03:11 PM