Idaho house votes to declare state of emergency... Over wolves...

[TheMightyFavog]

The Idaho House on Tuesday approved a measure that declares the state's wolves a "disaster emergency" -- akin to a flood or wildfire -- and gives the governor broad powers to eliminate them.

The bill, approved by a 64-5 vote, now heads to the Senate, where a dozen members have signed on as sponsors.

The legislation says the state's estimated 800 wolves are compromising public safety, destroying herds of big-game animals like elk and damaging hunting and agricultural industries.

Under existing Idaho law, a state of emergency allows the governor to marshal his police powers to lessen the impact of a declared threat.

[Hugabear]

1. Sounds like a good idea. Can we expand that to Wall Street and Washington DC?

Plenty of wolves in those places as well.

[brewens]

2. At first I blew off the wolf haters. I knew a certain percentage of

people wouldn't give the reintroduction a chance. All of my hunter friends say it's a disaster. The funny thing is that they had a controlled hunt over a year ago and the success rate was low. Not that they didn't try. We had a lot of guys all stoked up to go out and kill wolves. I think they even extended the season three months.
I think the problem is is that you don't really get a balance in nature with predators. It's more like a cycle of feast and famine. I've seen a graph of I think, wolves and snowshoe hares from back in the 70's. The hare population explodes and the wolves do as well. Then the wolves kill off too many hares and starve.
Hunters keeping the wolf population at a reasonable level is probably the answer. Some of the hunters will never be happy though. You now have old guys out in prime elk areas on four wheelers that would never have been able to hunt that country in the past. I'd say that is just as big of a problem.

[ddeclue]

3. why? are they at the door?

:rofl: