Voice Your Opinion On Wolves

If we want anything to get done concerning the management of wolves, we have to voice our opinion. The link below will send your opinion directly to the federal agency that now has controll. They will only accept comments until Nov. 28th…. I wish I would have found this sooner. Please forward this to everyone you can and please leave a comment.

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=090000648078074f

Here is a good example comment:

I think it is O.K. to have wolves in the state of Idaho, but I also believe it is illogical and irresponsible to not manage their population. I feel that the Idaho Fish & Game was on the right track with their proposed management plan for the species. It is a fact that wolves have negatively affected big game herds in the state, especially the elk herds. In certain areas of the state I, and many others, would tell you the wolves have decimated specific herds. I have seen the latter with my own eyes. I have been studying many different herds in central Idaho for years and each year the same scenario plays out; I see fewer and fewer elk with more and more wolf sign. Each year, for the past several years I have observed the calf to cow ratio of these herds dwindle. Throughout this summer and fall (2008) I observed an elk herd in an area with a strong wolf presence. This herd had 14 mature cows, plenty of mature breading bulls, and 0 (yes, zero) calves. I have observed many other herds of similar size this year that had an average of 2 calves per 15 cows and it is very clear that the wolves are the main component to these drastic numbers.

Again, I think it is O.K. to have wolves in Idaho but I feel it is absurd to manage all the other species in the state and let the wolves run rampant with no management. How can anyone overlook the existing species that are being negatively affected by the lack of regulation on the wolf population in Idaho? There is no logic in having such an imbalance in the harvest/predation ratio to a big game species like the elk. The fact is that we are losing our elk herds in the state at an alarming rate. I am not solely blaming the wolf for these declines but they are certainly a big component to the problem. In order to achieve a proper balance between harvest/predation and a healthy elk population there needs to be a management plan on the wolves in Idaho. Please give the control back to the state and let the Idaho Fish and Game do their job. Who has a better grasp of what is best for wildlife in the State of Idaho; a lobbyist in Washington who has never set foot in Idaho, an environmentalist from California who has never even seen an elk in the wild, or the Idaho Fish and Game Department who has been effectively managing one of the richest wildlife states in the country for almost 150 years?

E. Hoge