By John Thompson,
Idaho Farm Bureau

Federal agents cut down another pack of wolves in late July a few miles north of McCall. This is the third consecutive year when the feds have had to step in and turn an entire pack into worm food.

While there have been hundreds of other incidents when the feds darted and transported or killed individuals or smaller groups of problem wolves, this unexpected trend of gunning down entire packs raises a number of questions. The question of whether this experiment is working leads the list, but there are others, such as how much is this costing the taxpayer?

Those who support wolf reintroduction have got to be wondering whether the loss of one pack per year threatens the long-term viability of this misguided effort.

According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data, inside the wolf recovery area that includes Idaho, northwest Montana and Wyoming, the number of wolves killed in management activities by federal agents more than doubled from 2001 to 2002.

In the late winter of 2002, the Whitehawk Mountain Pack killed several cattle near the East Fork of the Salmon River. After repeated depredation incidents, federal agents snuffed the entire pack of 10 wolves.

In February 2003, after a string of similar incidents near Avon, Mont., Wildlife Services agents gunned down 12 wolves they believed to be most of the animals that made up the Castlerock and Halfway packs.

Then in April 2003 a pack of wolves killed more than 100 sheep near McCall. Most of the sheep were just killed, not consumed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued shoot-on-sight permits to the rancher but none of the wolves were seen again – until this summer. Between early June and the end of July, nine wolves from the Cook Pack killed more than 100 sheep about 20 miles north of McCall. On July 20 each of those nine wolves felt the wallop of a 10-guage shotgun loaded with buckshot.

So this is what wolf management has come to in Idaho. The animals have reproduced to the point where they have saturated available habitat. As more wolves are born each year and the young disperse into new valleys and mountain ranges, they inevitably kill more livestock.

But they can't dart and transport problem wolves anymore. Wolf management now means killing wolves. We have one federal agency (US Fish and Wildlife) that nurtures and monitors the packs and conducts public relations on their behalf, while a second federal agency (APHIS Wildlife Services) employs helicopters and shotguns to blow wolf hide all over the brush.

"We're from the government, we're here to help," was perhaps never a bigger contradiction.

Wolves from Canada were slowly repopulating the northern Rockies before Bruce Babbitt and his ilk decided to intervene. Since they couldn't leave well enough alone, we now have more wolves and more problems than we bargained for. To the federal government officials in charge it's just job security. But to rural Idaho residents, it's just the opposite.