The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting public hearings to listen to what the residents have to say in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho about easing the restrictions on wolves as it moves towards total removal from the Endangered Species list.

A similar meeting was held in Boise earlier this month with about 50 in attendance. The proposed easing of restrictions would allow for people to kill wolves for protection.

Proposed revised rules allowing wolves to be killed if they having a major impact on elk or other big game herds, or when the act of biting, chasing or harassing livestock and dogs….

If you will recall, back on July the 10th, I published an opinion piece about how ridiculous the proposed plan of the USFWS is.

How foolish! “Unacceptable Impacts” and “primarily caused by wolf predation”? Have you ever read any account of consensus on what is unacceptable impacts? Remember that 12 years ago it was determined that full recovery of wolves would be 350 wolves. We now have 1,300 and that’s not enough. Ranchers lose livestock everyday and nobody cares. In areas where wolves are living, the elk population is dwindling rapidly yet, this seems to be quite “acceptable”.

The other thing we need to ask is who and how do we prove that reductions in elk are “primarily caused by wolf predation”? Officials won’t determine when a wolf kills livestock unless they actually see the animal making the kill. Arguments rage everyday as to what is causing reduction in game animal populations. How is anyone seriously going to make any of these determinations?

If any determination is made, then “if it passes muster”, wildlife agencies might be able to administer wolf hunts. Who will muster? What individuals or groups will be called in to make the call?

While it is no surprise that in Boise along with other locations, group representatives and individuals showed up to protest the killing of any wolf. Here’s a great example of the mentality behind the wolf protectors.

“I want to speak for the wildlife. I cherish outdoor Idaho, but I see it changing,” said Beeson, a Boise area resident. “We’re carving up the foothills for development, and encroaching on wildlife habitat.

We need to respect the home of these animals, and manage ourselves.

If people don’t want wolves, they should go live in Florida.”

Perhaps Ms. Beeson forgets or maybe never knew or doesn’t care, that nobody in Idaho wanted the wolves reintroduced. It was forced down their throat by a misinformed and spineless government. Beeson is in the minority when it comes to managing wolves. It might be accurate to say that still the majority of Idaho residents would prefer not to have the wolves but they understand that the dirty deed has been done and now want to move on to put into place better management policies that will allow them to live in relative peace with the wolf.

Public comment will continue on this subject until Aug. 6, 2007.

WolfRuleChange@fws.gov, or mailed to USFWS, Wolf Delisting, 585 Shepard Way., Helena, Mont., 59601.

Defenders of Wildlife has asked for an extension on the comment period, as per usual.

Tom Remington

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