Wolf Control In Rockies

[BearClaws]

Wolf populations in the Yellowstone ecosystem are flourishing well beyond any projected forecast.
Is it at anytime plausible to support game departments in Wyoming, Idaho or Montana to allow hunters to control the wolf numbers outside park boundaries with a limited quota hunt?
At what point would the population numbers be deemed excessive?
There is only so much available habitat,and wolves are being seen in states far outside the targeted areas of reintroduction.
The wolves reproduce every year and the population will inevitably crash in areas when the prey is depleted.
Your thoughts?

[blindpig]

1. got links?

Those are some big meaty statements there. I have nowhere seen indications that wolves are overrunning the Rockies.
I don't know that the hunting of any keystone predator is sustainable, their population densities are much less than the species that we typically manage for the hunt.

Personally I think the answer is more wolf habitat, after all they once inhabited the entire country. For that matter we need to get it on with the re-introduction of the Lobo to the Southwest.

One thing about wolves, they tend to suppress coyote populations, one of the reasons that we are eaten up with coyote here in the East.

[BearClaws]

2. HOW!

How would one go about creating more wolf habitat?
Mow down subdivisions?
Wolves are now in Oregon,Montana,Wyoming,Idaho and in your home town
next.
I think they are great animals, but they are not holy icons.
Since man has divided up the lower 48, large predators have suffered a tremendous blow.
Large predators simply cannot co-exist with man in areas where the habitat is broken up into little subdivisions!
In Alaska and Canada there are incredible expanses of prime habitat for wolves and grizzlies, however the lower 48 is a totally different story!
I hate to see emotion dictate wildlife management!
It should be controlled strictly by science.
I am seeing the results of emotion driven wildlife management here in California.
I used to live on a large cattle ranch, where in the last few years of my residence there I was seeing mountain lions on a regular basis.
California voted to make mountain lions a specially protected species based on emotional B.S.
Science showed that their numbers were rapidly increasing, so Fish and Game proposed a very limited hunting season.
The protectionists got involved and put the measure on the ballot to let uneducated joe "animal planet" six pack vote on it. (quality wildlife management!)Now we have citizens getting killed by lions!
I was in Alaska a few years ago and distinctly remember a report coming out about a child in south east Alaska getting killed by a wolf.
That story has all but disappeared!
I love wildlife as much as anyone on Earth, but we must manage it wisely, reaching a compromise between man and beast.

[blindpig]

3. Compromise?

I suspect that your idea of compromise is that of the repubs: date rape. Compromise would entail leaving adequate lands for sustainable populations of large predators. If people move into remaining large predator territory they shouldn't complain about the consequences.

You speak of science but the problem is economic. Let us preserve an adequate amount of land for these critters and compensate stockmen when conservation efforts cause loss of stock.

You speak disdainfully of emotion, prehaps you should read Biophelia by E O Wilson.

Quite honestly, your post reeks of "wise use", nothing but a stalking horse for greed. By the by, where are those links?

[NickB79]

4. If they are already in all those states

Then we don't have to "create" any more wolf habitat. It already exists, has existed for millenia, and they are reclaiming it.

[NickB79]

5. Wolf numbers have stabilized here in MN

Despite the large amount of potential habitat in the southern half of our state, the wolf population has stabilized and remained in the northern half of MN. This was reported earlier this week in the MN Star Tribune. It seems that any southward migration means too much interaction with humans, which wild wolves seem to avoid at all costs. Despite the high numbers and lack of a wolf season, deer populations are still very, very high, so they haven't exhausted their prey population yet.

[Lost Creek]

6. tens of thousands of elk in colorado need to go

elk were not even common in the Greater Yellowstone eco-system untill we started protecting them. Elk are very destructive. It will take a lot of wolfs a long time to bring the elk and deer populations down to a point that the vegetation can recover.

[blindpig]

7. what is your frame of reference?

Is it historical, the last 50, 100 years? Can we apply your concern for vegetation to cattle? Inquiring minds.................