Idaho starts planning for wolf delisting

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials are crafting their strategy for wolf management in the state following the announcement last week that the federal government will begin removing protections from the state's gray wolves.

The department plans to survey elk and deer hunters to determine how many of them saw wolves while hunting and where they saw them.

The results, and other research by the department, will be used to determine where wolves can be hunted and what kind of options hunters will have, from special draws for a limited number of hunting tags in some areas to general hunts in others.

"We'll be looking at where we want stable wolf populations and where we want to moderate wolf populations and where we might want to have no wolves or few wolves," said Steve Nadeau, large carnivore coordinator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in Boise.

Wolves were reintroduced to the northern Rocky Mountains a decade ago after being hunted to near-extinction. They now number more than 1,200 in the region. Idaho's federally approved wolf-management plan requires maintaining a minimum of 15 packs; the state is currently estimated to have about 60 packs.

With the rising population, state officials including Idaho Gov. Jim Risch and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer have been pushing the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove Endangered Species Act protections that officials say hamper control efforts aimed at stopping the predators that have spread into populated areas and are eating livestock, as well as elk that are prized by hunters.

"Those are areas we don't expect long-term survival," Nadeau said. "Those are areas we might want to hunt them hard."

Fish and Wildlife Director Dale Hall said last week that wolves would no longer have federal protections in all of Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington and Oregon, and a small sliver of northeastern Utah. Wolves outside of those areas would still have federal protections.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will make the final decision on how wolves will be managed in Idaho.

Establishing rules for wolf hunting is expected to take about a year. Officials say the process of delisting the wolves will probably take about a year as well, because of public comment requirements and likely court challenges from environmental groups.