LOBO WATCH

The Human Factor

  How Important Are You...Your Needs...Your Welfare...Your Safety When It Comes To An Ever Growing Number Of Wolves?

There are now right at 1-million people living in the state of Montana, next door in Idaho there are just over 1.5-million residents, and just to the south in Wyoming there are slightly more than a half-million people who call the state "home" (with about as many pronghorn antelope).  It is this open, uncrowded feeling which has lured many people to move to this part of the West...the Northern Rockies.  I know it was for me - that and the great abundance and variety of wildlife.  However, with the influx of "outsiders" has come many different viewpoints and opinions, some of which have not set well with the four...five...six generation residents - many of whom are descendents of those who settled here before theses states were even states.  And not the least of these issues has been the reintroduction of the gray wolf into the Northern Rockies. 

It is a fact that a higher percentage of the populations of these three states enjoy hunting more than in any other area of the country.  Guns...shooting ...and hunting are still a big part of western recreation, lifestyle and welfare.  And there are those who have a problem with that.  And for the most part, it is those who head organizations like the Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club or the Humane Society of the United States, and a number of other "environmental" groups who would like to see those pursuits eliminated.

Wolves are now beginning to have a serious negative effect on elk, deer and other big game populations.  And big game hunters in these three states now know who their enemies are when it comes to controlling the fast-growing wolf numbers in the Northern Rockies.  It is the anti-hunting "environmental" groups. 

Unfortunately, the majority of those who have moved to Montana, Idaho and Wyoming over the past couple of decades came here from the large metropolitan areas of California, Oregon, Washington...the extremely heavily populated regions of New England...or from sprawling cities like Atlanta, Dallas, or Chicago.  They came here for what the area was...beautiful, uncluttered, and open...with lots of wild places left to enjoy.  And they immediately began trying to change it into exactly what they had left behind.  With them, many also brought a total misunderstanding of a predator's role in the wild world.  And that is to kill to survive.  For many, their ingrained image of the wolf has been the cute and cuddly "puppies" that Walt Disney brainwashed them with through the 1960s and 1970s.   And which is still perpetuated by the environmental groups who strive to keep that image alive, and to make

today's hunter appear cruel and barbaric.  Most of all, these extremists do everything they can to cover up or mask the damage wolves are doing to other wildlife populations and the cattle production these states rely on so heavily.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is doing a better job than Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks when it comes to getting a handle on an out of control wolf problem.  In Idaho, the quota for the 2009 wolf management hunt is 220, or about 26-percent of the "guesstimated" wolf population in that state.  The Montana wildlife agency has now upped their "guesstimation" to 550 wolves across the state - and set their 2009 quota at just 75 wolves - or less than 15-percent of the wolves in the state.  And all of this sounds dandy - except for one thing.  NO ONE HAS A CLUE TO HOW MANY WOLVES THERE REALLY ARE!

For the elk herds to be so severely impacted in Idaho, and for the spring 2009 elk calf crop in Montana to be literally "wiped out" by wolves - residents in these two states are now realizing just how little the "wildlife professionals" in these two states really know about wolves.  It's been, and continues to be, a "learn as you go" process for the wildlife agencies in each of these states.  And the cost has been the ongoing destruction of big game herds - which could take decades to recover.  And that's only if a true effort is made to reduce wolf numbers down to where they need to be.

Go back 30 or 40 or more years and take a look at who was paying for and supporting the conservation efforts which successfully grew and spread our elk, deer, pronghorn, moose, bighorn sheep, and other big game populations in the West - and the rest of the country for that matter.  It sure as hell was not the Sierra Club...or Defenders of Wildlife...or Earth Justice...or the Center for Biological Diversity.  These "Johnny Come Lately" environmental greenies didn't jump onto the "let's save wildlife" bandwagon until well after the American sportsmen already had accomplished that.  But these organizations did see a way to cash in on the emotions of those who had not supported real conservation work, and they've milked them for millions, maybe billions, of dollars using mostly lies and deceit...and a whole lot of sensationalism!

If Americans continue to listen to the lies and deceit of environmental groups, scenes like this in the Northern Rockies could soon be only remembered in photographs.  The uncontrolled expansion of wolf populations put all other wildlife in serious jeopardy.  And now that big game populations are dwindling, wolves will turn to other prey - livestock, pets and...

Through the 1900s, big game populations in the U.S. were successfully saved from disappearing forever.  As the human population of this country grew and spread farther and farther west during the last half of the 1800s, more and more game was commercially harvested to feed the growing horde.  By 1900, only a handful of elk remained in a few states, deer populations had been decimated, and the pronghorn nearly wiped out.  Not by sport hunting, but by market hunting - to supply an ever growing human population.  Two things saved the country from losing its wildlife altogether - ranching and predator control.  Beef replaced wild game on America's dinner table.  And to insure that beef could be raised profitably and in such numbers as to feed a growing nation, predators, especially the wolf, were constantly hunted to keep their numbers as low as possible.  By the 1920s, the wolf had been pretty much eliminated from the Northern Rocky Mountains region.  And without depredation problems, ranching flourished and wildlife populations, thanks to a lot of hands on conservation work, rebounded.  And by the mid 1990s, elk, deer and pronghorn numbers were at record levels.  That is, until the U.S. Department of the Interior foolishly, under pressure from the environmental groups, reintroduced the gray wolf into the Northern Rocky Mountains ecosystem - a system that had prospered as a wolf-free system for more than 70 years.

Not any more.  And just since the first release of the larger variety Canadian wolves in the Yellowstone area during 1995-1996, we are now seeing the impact this predator can have on large game populations - and on livestock production as well.  One of this country's leading wolf experts has shared that wolf numbers have been greatly underestimated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the wildlife agencies in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.  According to this acknowledged wolf biologist, there are likely 3,000+ wolves in the Northern Rockies - or twice as many as being reported...and ten times the proposed successful recovery goal at the outset of the so-called "Wolf Recovery Project".  Sportsmen are now calling the project "The Big Lie!"...or the "Rape of the West!"  Either is very fitting.

Right now, sportsmen who enjoy hunting are the "human factor" that's being impacted the most.  For nearly a hundred years, the sportsmen of this country have invested billions of dollars to insure the health of big game populations across the country.  Now, all of that work could be headed down the tubes.  Wolves have already pulled down big game numbers in some areas to where the herds cannot sustain hunting.  Another "human factor" is the American taxpayer who is forced to pay for this fiasco in more than one way. 

First, there is the several hundred million dollars it has taken to reintroduce this wildlife virus back into the Northern Rockies - and the millions more it is going to take to manage, and very likely totally remove once more,  such a destructive predator.  Then there are all of those small businesses that are being financially impacted by the millions lost annually due to hunters losing interest in hunting big game that's no longer there...and the loss of revenue to continue operating our state wildlife agencies.   Likewise, the "do gooders" who head the environmental organizations have learned how to turn all of those frivolous federal lawsuits they file into a real cash cow, and have collected billions of taxpayer dollars in "reimbursement" - whether they win those suits or not.   Then, there are the ranchers.  And as elk and deer numbers in an area are pulled low by wolf depredation, those 100 to 150 pound meat eaters will turn to the next most plentiful food source - cattle.  In some areas, they already are.  And ranchers will find it increasingly difficult to raise cattle profitably - unless the federal government, who created this problem, fully "reimburses" them as well, which will require millions more taxpayer dollars annually.

The biggest "human factor" of all will likely become the danger wolves will pose many of us personally.  At what point will it become way too dangerous for very young children to have the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors?  The photo of the mother and her young daughter fishing at the top of this page is one I took back in early June, on a small mountain lake about 70 miles northwest of Yellowstone National Park - an area with a healthy wolf population.  Now, I'm an old varmint hunter, and over the years I have called in more than a thousand coyotes...hundreds of foxes...dozens of bobcats... several mountain lions...some bears...and even a few wolves.  These animals are often a sucker for the distress calls of injured game, and will come charging right in...looking for an easy meal.  With that thought in my mind, as I took this photo, I wondered what could happen if wolves on the hunt were in the same area, and heard the crying of a small child that may have fallen and gotten hurt, on a rock such as that in the photo.  Would they react in the same manner?   Will wolves become such a problem in the not so distant future that those who love the outdoors will be faced with packing a firearm every time they step out of the vehicle - to hike, camp or fish?  Or for that matter, will it become "child endangerment" just to let young children walk down a rural drive to wait for the school bus?  Sounds like a Sci-Fi flick that's gone bad, doesn't it?

The environmentalist have totally ignored the "human factor" when it comes to their pushing for greater wolf numbers - and their demands to end the wolf management hunts. 

Only in America! - Toby Bridges  

Published 10-19-09

Copyright 2009 - Designed & Hosted by Toby Bridges at Homestead

Save An Elk Herd...Kill A Wolf!