Bud Sonnetag writes:
This is to inform you of a new website now on line by Cliff Gardner, a life long Nevadan who has spent many years of his life documenting game management throughout Nevada and the western states and it’s affects on hunters, cattlemen, grazing rights and private property owners. You’ll be amazed at what Mr. Gardner has compiled for our use to benefit each of us in our fields of expertise. I invite everyone to look it over and appreciate it’s professionalism and use it in your future research and understanding of our American history.
The Gardner Files are [here]. W.I.S.E. linked to them two months ago in our Colloquia Rural Culture and Wildlife Sciences. We have posted two sampling from Cliff’s copious archives: Cattle and Wildlife on the Arizona Strip [here] and The Destruction of the Sheldon [here]. We plan to add more gems from The Gardner Files to the W.I.S.E. Library in the future.
Bit by bit Cliff is placing his archives online, with the help of his wife and daughter. They include wildlife science and ranching reports, government documents, and oral histories collected from Nevada ranchers and pioneers from as far back as 1850.
The Gardner Files are a treasure trove and a gold mine of information. Happy prospecting!
May 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Homo sapiens, Deer, Elk, Bison
The conservation group that photographed the Orogrande Slaughter [here] has done the same in the North Fork of the Clearwater River in North Central Idaho.
The Idaho Fish and game had closed the road in February and March to keep snowmobilers from harassing and causing undue stress and trauma to the wintering elk caught in very deep snow. IFG did not, however, prevent wolves from slaughtering elk and whatever else they could find.
In April, on the first day that the Idaho Fish and Game gave the green light to the Clearwater National Forest to re-open the road, the conservation team was on the ground taking pictures and documenting the wolf predation. Special thanks go to Lewis and Sharon Turcott and others for their incredible efforts providing these pictures to the public.
Warning: the photographs are graphic. The North Fork Clearwater Wolf Kill is [here]
April 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Deer, Elk, Bison, Wolves
By TY HAMPTON, Shoshone News Press [here]
SHOSHONE COUNTY - Nearly a week after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled to remove gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains from the federal endangered species list, Idaho Fish and Game confirmed that at least five elk carcasses found over the past month in the Mullan area are thought to be wolf kill.
Wallace Fish and Game Conservation Officer Josh Stanley reported that three carcasses were found along a popular snowmobile path up Dead Man’s Gulch with two others near the fish hatchery, all killed by wolves. An additional two elk fatalities are in question.
Stanley said wolf tracks were discovered near the recently found carcasses with similar wounds that indicated death by wolf rather than mountain lion.
“We are just now beginning to see wolves visually in the Mullan area,” Stanley said. “And what we’ve found is just what we can see. There is no telling what has occurred up in the mountains.”
Stanley said ever since the wolves were reintroduced to the region they have met, reproduced, and formed new packs in concentrated areas. He added that a pack has been known to travel between Mullan and St. Regis, Mont.
“That will only last for so long before we have a pack in Mullan,” Stanley said. “I really believe the Coeur d’Alene drainage will have its own pack soon if the trend continues.”
Stanley called the wolf kills a new and growing mortality source for elk in the area, citing winter conditions and the occasional mountain lion for the bulk of local elk fatalities.
April 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Deer, Elk, Bison, Wolves
The Idaho Statesman ran dueling reader’s opinion pieces about wolves this week. One was by Suzanne Asha Stone of Boise, the wolf conservation specialist for Defenders of Wildlife:
Forty years ago, there were no known wolf packs in the northern Rockies because people had driven them to near extinction in the region. Today, 1,500 wolves roam across Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Returning wolves to the wild has been a remarkable wildlife achievement, but this is a story whose next chapters are just now being written. The question is: Will this story have a happy ending? … [more]
The other was written by Nate Helm, executive director of Idaho’s chapter of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife.
Yes, it is time - time to remove the population of wolves living in Idaho from the endangered species list. Sportsmen in Idaho and across the West support the Department of Interior’s (DOI) recent proposal to delist wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
Wolves in Idaho are currently managed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In the case of wolves, the constitutional right given to all states, including Idaho, to manage her wildlife has been superseded by the ESA. The traditional managers of wildlife in Idaho - the citizens of the state, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game - have had little say. … [more]
Both opinion pieces drew a rash of comments. Most are typical Internet drivel, but one comment stood out head and shoulders above the rest. It was submitted by OneCreek, a pseudonym no doubt. I don’t have any idea who One Creek is, but his comment was so superb that I am posting in its entirety. Please enjoy, and hopefully learn:
Heck - This should have been a “Letter to the Editor”…
I am going to tread dangerously here, and make an assumption that most, if not all of the previous commentary has been penned by those who live and work in cities. Therefore, thoughts and commentary on the subject outside of that which reflects on certain legal perspectives is mostly little more than “abstract”, rather than objective.
I live and work in the North Fork Ranger District of the Salmon-Challis National Forest. Not only do I live in said District, but my property is totally surrounded by the National Forest. Residing here year-around since the year the wolves were established in the area, 1995, perhaps my observations should be of some consideration regarding this debate.
Living here as I do, observation of the natural world around me is secondhand practice. I see things that the casual visitor does not, and for that matter, even the dedicated hunter or the naturalist. By the time their observational talents begin to truly and measurably improve, they must leave for more civilized environs. Conversely, this grand landscape is my constant companion.
March 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Cougars, Deer, Elk, Bison, Wolves
Brucellosis is a bacterial disease carried by livestock and capable of infecting people. Tainted milk or meat causes undulant fever and inflammation of the joints, spinal column, and heart. Brucellosis was a serious problem prior to World War I, but antibiotics (Strain-19 vaccine) had largely eliminated the disease in U.S. livestock by 1997.
There is one spot where Brucellosis lingers: Yellowstone National Park. Bison and elk in YNP still carry the disease, and those migrating animals are still spreading it to ranches in Montana.
The YNP Brucellosis story has been artfully reported by journalist Dave Skinner in the Spring 2008 issue of Range Magazine. And Range editor C.J. Hadley has generously put the story, Buffaloed in Paradise, online for the free reading pleasure and education of the public [here].
Range Magazine consistently prints the stories most important to the rural West, written by the top journalists in the West, and is always ahead of the pack. Buffaloed in Paradise is no exception.
Skinner weaves a tale that includes the tragic but necessary destruction of entire cattle herds, the severe economic losses, and the suffering of ranch families unfortunate enough to be caught in the epidemic YNP has spread. He correctly identifies the scientifically absurd “natural regulation” policy that has led to much destruction of wildlife and vegetation in Yellowstone.
Haughty NPS managers have for decades ignored science in favor of superstition and pre-Darwinian bogosities in their mismanagement of America’s flagship National Park. The results of their Disney-esque foppery include the million-acre 1988 Yellowstone Fire, destruction of the prairies and forests of Yellowstone, and the infection of cattle ranches 100 miles or more from the Park.
YNP has also been the staging center for “reintroduction” of wolves that have wandered across four or five states and caused massive livestock and wildlife losses. Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho state governments are up in arms over the problems caused and emanating from the most mismanaged Park in America today (that’s saying a lot because parks like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite are in terrible shape).
From Buffaloed in Paradise:
Yet something rings especially false about NPS’s obstinacy: its natural regulation policy implies that native species and their interactions reign supreme. Brucella abortus, however, is neither native nor natural. It’s a virulent infectious organism, native to the Levantine regions of the eastern Mediterranean, where its debilitating effects on both livestock and humans likely had a major role in establishing Hebrew kosher and Islamic halal rules concerning meat and milk.
One would expect the Park Service to spare no effort in banishing an exotic disease from its natural realm, but instead the park deliberately and nonsensically quit managing the disease–40 years ago.
For the entire article and more from Range Magazine, see [here].
March 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Deer, Elk, Bison
The pictures in the linked report were taken during 4 separate trips within just an 11-day period from 2-28-2008 through 3-9-2008. The location of the elk predation by wolves was along a small section of road at Orogrande Creek, which empties into the North Fork of the Clearwater River in North Central Idaho. This small section of this huge country is indicative of how severe the predation has been this winter as elk have been trapped by deep snow and are easily killed by wolves.
Warning: the pictures are graphic and gruesome.
The Orogrande Slaughter is [here].
March 14, 2008 | 5 Comments | Topic: Deer, Elk, Bison, Wolves
Originally posted at Alaskans for Professional Wildlife Management [here] and Wolf Crossing [here]
* Wild game is an important food source for many Alaskans and the goal of predator control is to reduce wolf and bear populations in order to increase the number moose and caribou available to be used as food by people
* In much of Alaska, predators keep moose and caribou populations below what their habitats could support
* There are up to 11,000 wolves, 30,000 grizzly and over 100,000 black bears in Alaska
* Wolves and bears may kill up to 80% of the moose or caribou that die each year
* The goal of predator control is to sustain healthy caribou and moose populations AND healthy wolf and bear populations
* In control areas, predator numbers may be reduced, but are never completely eliminated
* There is no indication that predator control permanently damages wolf or bear populations
* There are only five current wolf control programs in place, covering only 9% of Alaska
* Predator control is not hunting; it is a wildlife management tool only used to reduce excessive predator populations. As a result, the rules of fair chase do not apply
* When properly conducted, predator control programs have successfully increased moose and caribou populations
March 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Deer, Elk, Bison, Bears, Wolves
by Steve Alder, Chairman of the Clearwater Chapter of Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife Idaho
I just returned from looking for elk in the Lochsa River (unit 12, Lolo zone) and in my opinion there aren’t enough elk to support 10 wolves, let alone the proposed 500+ wolves the enviros want in this area, due to the severe winter this year and let alone the predation.
I filmed this trip and the snow is still 5-7 feet deep in the upper 40 miles of the Lochsa. We will lose almost all of our elk in this region even without the help of the wolves, just as we did in the winter of 96-97.
We saw elk below Fish Creek in the lower section of the Lochsa, but the numbers are in single digits compared to the thousands of elk that were there prior to the Fall of 1996. Saw a few whitetail deer standing next to the river dying and a moose that was in the river that I didn’t quite capture on film.
We checked the Lower Selway River and it didn’t have such deep snow. The few elk left are looking good. I question whether we have enough elk from Challis north to I-90 in our Idaho DPS to sustain Nadeau’s 500-700 wolves that he’s hoping to retain, cuddle, and manage in the proposed Idaho Wolf Plan.
I’ve decided to take a full day each week to personally get in the air or on the ground and monitor, document, and film what is really going on. I will be joining my 75 year old father who has been hiking this country a full day each week for the past 25 years. There is not a ridgetop along the Lochsa he hasn’t explored. Even if we don’t accomplish anything, I will get in shape and will feel like I’ve contributed something to the cause!
March 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Deer, Elk, Bison
The Far Left leaning Missoulian published a cheesy science report on pronghorn antelope in Yellowstone [here].
BILLINGS - More gray wolves mean more pronghorn antelope in the Yellowstone area, according to researchers who say the region’s rebounding wolf population is killing and scaring off coyotes that otherwise prey on pronghorn.
The researchers said that during a three-year study, pronghorn fawns were three times more likely to survive in areas dominated by wolves versus those ruled by coyotes. That’s because wolves favor larger prey, such as elk or cattle, and generally leave pronghorn alone.
The findings appear in the latest issue of the journal Ecology.
The “science” reported by the Missoulian here is a little twisted. Yes, wolves generally prefer larger prey, when they can get it. And no, coyotes generally do not predate elk. But the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem is so messed up that strange things happen there.
A super-abundance of wolves has been decimating what used to be a super-abundance of elk. Historically both species were rare in Yellowstone due to anthropogenic predation over thousands of years. Lewis and Clark encountered few of either when they traversed the Yellowstone in the early 1800’s (actually just Clark and a few of the Corps of Discovery–Lewis and the rest went another way).
In the absence of human predation the elk populations rebounded, or as biologists say, irrupted. Then wolves were reintroduced in the 1990’s and their population irrupted. Carnage has ensued.
Today the Yellowstone elk are in serious decline due to wolf predation. The Northern Yellowstone elk herd is at record low population numbers and may be extirpated in the next year or two by a burgeoning number of wolves at record high counts.
March 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Deer, Elk, Bison, Wolves
by Mike Laughlin of Hunter’s Alert [here]
Note: the essay is in rebuttal to an article which appeared in the Reno Gazette Journal [see here]
I read with interest the article in the Reno Gazette Journal, January 25, 2008, concerning Nevada’s declining deer population.
I do not know whom the NDOW expert, Biologist Mike Cox is, but he is a long way from knowing or telling the “real story” of what went on during the big deer years in Nevada. If he thinks that the main reason for the decline of Nevada deer herds is the overall condition of habitat, he either does not know what he is talking about or he is creating “smoke and mirrors” for NDOW.
I ran the operational Predatory Animal Control program throughout the State of Nevada for the U. S Fish & Wildlife Program, during the 1970s and 80s, as the Assistant State Supervisor. I believe I have on-the-ground and in-the-air understanding of what went on during the big deer years in Nevada. There were three full-time Government Mountain Lion Hunters employed year-around hunting lions. Coyote and mountain lion numbers were kept under control. Deer tags, for Nevada hunters, were unlimited in number and were available for over-the-counter purchase at hunting-license dealers statewide.
In 1972, a big change occurred in the Animal Damage Control business throughout the west. President Richard Nixon banned the use of toxicants in the government control program by executive order (he was soliciting the environmental vote that was just starting to emerge). With the loss of toxicants and nothing to replace it with but a few trappers, coyote numbers began to rise dramatically. Throughout the state of Nevada, deer numbers fell to 96,000 by 1976. Predation upon livestock by predators was a serious problem. In the late 70s, political pressure by the livestock industry and their representatives in Washington, D.C. brought about a dramatic increase in the Federal budget for Animal Damage Control.
February 16, 2008 | 11 Comments | Topic: Deer, Elk, Bison
