A month ago the New Mexico Association of Counties passed a unanimous resolution opposing the reintroduction of Mexican gray wolves into the state. Although the resolution and vote were reported by Wolf Crossing [here], the story did not appear the MSM (main stream media) until yesterday [here]. From the Daily Times (Farmington NM):
AZTEC — Members of New Mexico Association of Counties recently banded together to oppose the reintroduction of Mexican gray wolves into New Mexico.
“These wolves were kicked out of Arizona,” said Tony Atkinson, chairman of San Juan County Commission. “They’re not wild.” …
“The New Mexico Association of Counties shall oppose any rule or proposed rule related to the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf that does not provide the opportunity for continual involvement of New Mexico’s county elected officials in the decision-making process,” the resolution stated. …
County officials have repeatedly expressed their concerns about people’s safety, their own exclusion from the planning of management of the federal programs under whose purview wolf regulation lies, inability to address problem wolf behavior and related livestock issues — including “insufficient compensation” to ranchers.
“The nonessential experimental population reintroduction has not proven successful based upon the proposals to amend the current management stipulations that require wolves to establish home ranges within the designated recovery area and require initial wolf releases from captivity only into the primary recovery zone,” the resolution stated.
New Mexico Association of Counties represents all of the state’s 33 counties.
The entire resolution is available at Wolf Crossing [here].
Read more
May 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Homo sapiens, Wolves
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 | 1 Comment | Topic: Deer, Elk, Bison, Wolves
Here are 2 of the first 5 wolves taken near Big Piney and Pinedale, Wyoming. A law enforcement officer released these pictures. The wolves were taken legally.
April 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Wolves
Is this what we want for our “ecosystems”?
Posted at Wolf Crossing [here]
Last weekend a woman witnessed a pack of wolves attack and kill two of her dogs just outside of her window, near Ashton, ID. She tried to scare them off and they ignored her (she’s probably lucky they did since she wasn’t using the correct deterrent).
Our ancestors did their best to get rid of the problem and then we re-created the problem that we are going to have to address, AGAIN.
This incident occurred east of Ashton. The wolves traveled down the reclamation road last night and killed 9 dogs. This one survived the night. The photo was posted by Dr. Griffel. DON’T LOOK IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH. Idaho Dog Attack — CAUTION GRAPHIC.
April 19, 2008 | 2 Comments | Topic: Wolves
by Roni Bell Sylvester, Good Neighbor Law [here]
The wolf program has nothing to do with any promised esthetics of a “seeing experience” for the mire handful of individuals who would deliberately SUV, hike, walk, crawl, ATV, wheelchair, RV or Harley into a wolf den.
Each “look see” probably costs us taxpayers $10,000. Can we afford this show?
When Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced a wolf initiative in 1994, it is said by many including a U.S. District Judge, that Babbitt misinterpreted the law, exceeded the authority of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and ignored the concerns of the Indigenous whose homes were on the very land he wanted to plant wolves.
Why did he do this? Study the history of ESA, and you’ll clearly see how it has been mis-skewed by an elite few to gain control over the usage of our land and water.
After all, he who gets control over land and water gets the gold! It’s all about money. All takeovers of land, water, company or private property, follow the same formula. Depending on the structure of the organization, this formula works by: finding something “to save;” waiving public debate; ignoring shareholders or members; pretending they found this thing “to save” on your land; disturbing you to such extent that you (now spent financially, physically and mentally) throw up your hands and cry out, “I can’t handle this anymore. I give up!”
Yesterday, the take-over artists enlisted the federal government’s help. Today, they receive welfare from, and dictate marching orders to, our federal government.
In the case of Endangered Species, the once well-used spotted owl has been replaced by the wolf, polar bear, the overpopulated and very common meadow mouse, and a myriad of critters.
Since 1994, untold numbers of ewes, lambs, calves and other livestock and pets, have been lost due to wolf killings. I doubt whether Bruce Babbitt or any wolf follower drone has suffered a wolf kill. With that as a given, their lack of comprehension regarding the financial and mental toll these kills have on those who have incurred such losses should absolutely disqualify them from any decision making process.
Meanwhile Babbitt now enjoys money and status as head of the World Wildlife Foundation. Together with Al Gore, his new something “to save” is the entire earth from sea to shining sea and everything above and below. After all, he who gets control over land and water gets the gold!
It’s not about a “seeing experience” for the many. It is instead, all about money… for a few.
Can you imagine the killing these wolves are making?
April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: 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
By Mike Satren, Outdoors editor, Coeur d’Alene Press [here]
Clash of worldviews pits rural versus urban
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted its Feb. 21 conference call to brief the media that wolves would be delisted from the Endangered Species Act on March 28, USFWS leaders and Interior officials patted themselves on the back.
“Gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains are thriving and no longer require the protection of the Endangered Species Act,” said Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett. “The wolf’s recovery in the Northern Rocky Mountains is a conservation success story.”
Many of the rural folks in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming don’t share this rosey view now and they didn’t like it back when the Canadian grey wolves were first turned loose in central Idaho in 1996 and 1997.
They counter that the real conservation success story was much earlier during the 20th century when hunters and fishermen put their tax money where their mouths were. Angry at the severe depletion of herds and flocks caused by the unchecked market hunting of the 19th century, President Theodore Roosevelt - supported by sportsmen - worked to pass laws to implement game regulations throughout the states heralding an era of wildlife abundance.
April 4, 2008 | 2 Comments | Topic: 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
Here is an example your government at work. What follows is a press release from the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, with some commentary from Wildlife and People thrown in:
ODFW Press Release, March 21, 2008 [here]
LA GRANDE, Ore.—A radio-collared gray wolf was confirmed in Oregon in January. Credible public reports of wolf sightings continue, and biologists are finding tracks and other wolf sign in northeast Oregon. The de-listing of wolves from the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in a portion of eastern Oregon is scheduled to take effect on March 28, 2008.
The gray wolf is not endangered. There are thousands of them roaming the West. Despite the best efforts of eco-nazis, the US Government was forced to delist them.
As wolf activity in Oregon increases, the state is ready to take the management reins. Oregon adopted a wolf management plan in 2005 and has been implementing it since.
But not to worry. ODFW HAS listed gray wolves under Oregon State T&E laws, and so will be protecting them from all harm despite the Federal delisting
“Oregonians are in a fortunate position to already have a Wolf Conservation and Management Plan in place, so we’re ready to conserve and manage wolves,” says Russ Morgan, ODFW wolf coordinator. “But there seems to be confusion about how the plan deals with depredation by wolves. We want to set the record straight so livestock producers are clear on what tools are available to them.”
How fortunate are we! But just in case the victims of unrestrained, multiplying, ravenous wolves don’t understand, Russ Morgan of ODFW will be setting them straight.
March 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Wolves
by Admin at Wolf Crossing [here]
Finally, a few of the kids from the Reserve School District in New Mexico, will be sheltered from both the weather and from local wildlife while they wait for the bus.
Wolf-Proof Bus Stop Shelter (built from donated funds raised by Louis Oliver and Mimbres Farm Bureau)
In May of 2007 two Catron county Reserve School district school children were followed home from the bus stop by what appeared to be a Mexican wolf although later two sets of wolf tracks were found in the immediate area of the incident.
In a separate incident a 14 year old camper was surrounded by three Mexican wolves while on a hunting trip with his father and family friends. Locations determined the wolves were likely members of the Luna pack. The incident lasted 5-10 minutes and the young man although armed and afraid for his life, chose to wait patiently while the wolves investigated him. Thankfully the incident ended with the wolves moving away, possibly due to the smell and presence of a rifle the young man was carrying. However, these incidents have underscored the need to protect rural children from escalating encounters with Mexican wolves.
This incident among others prompted the Catron County Commission to pass an emergency ordinance directed at protecting children and defenseless persons from mismanagement that is prevalent in the program and growing worse as power struggles become common within the adaptive management oversight committee overseeing the project and the ongoing development of the environmental impact statement that will eventually lead to program expansion.
March 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Homo sapiens, Wolves
