THE WOLF – HERE WE GO AGAIN
By Jim Foster
It must be déjà view. It does seem like we have gone down this road before. Wait a minute – we have! It’s been recently announced that Montana will have its first official gray wolf hunting season this fall.
That is of course if there happens to be a shortage of ambulances to chase and the so-called animal rights legal nerds - with more money than gray matter - undertake more legal intervention. Remember last year when a Montana judge used the law above scientific facts and reissued the protected status of the wolf.
Montana Wildlife and Parks Commission unanimously agreed on a 75-wolf quota for a hunting season this fall. State officials said the historic decision (again) represents a victory for wildlife conservation in Montana. Dealing with the multi-flawed Endangered Species Act has been a challenge. Of course Obama hasn’t helped – so far.
Montana manages elk, deer, bears, mountain lions, ducks, bighorn sheep, and wolves in balance with their habitats, other species, and in balance with the people who live here,” said FWP Director Joe Maurier.
Wolf advocates have two lawsuits ready to file in federal court contesting the removal of gray wolves in Montana and Idaho from the protection offered by the Endangered Species Act, and say they expect to ask a judge to intervene in the wolf hunt. They haven’t filed as yet but it’s seems only a matter of time.
These were the same simpletons who put the Polar Bear on the ESL under the excuse of Global Warming, something anyone with a brain knows just isn’t happening. Even scientists who were promoting this myth/theory have now jumped ship creating the need for Al – the sky is falling - Gore to try and cover his soon to be frozen posterior.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, believes Montana shouldn’t have a wolf-hunting season until the population is fully recovered. The key word here is recovered and to be “recovered” the Gray Wolf must have been in Montana and Idaho in the first place. FACT: The gray wolf NEVER lived in Montana or Idaho.
A majority of the 180 public comments submitted to the commission stated that not only should a hunting season take place, but also the proposed range of a 26 to 165-wolf quota was too low. The favorable comments were from people who must live with and put up with the wolf. Those misguided souls against the delisting were mostly from eastern states. Let’s stock these canine darlings in Central Park in New York and see who starts yelling.
Montana is home to at least 500 gray wolves, with another 846 residing in Idaho and 302 in Wyoming. An estimated 1,000 wolf pups were born in the Northern Rockies this spring. (I question these numbers - the numbers are much higher.)
Idaho is expected to set a wolf-hunting quota in August, according to Ken McDonald, Idaho chief of wildlife. Wolves are being seen now in residential communities around Salmon, Idaho. In addition the Moyer Basin pack has removed or caused the relocation of the majority of elk and deer from that area.
GW Bush has caught the ire of the liberal populations for many things some true and some not, but it was the Bush administration took gray wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming off the endangered species list in 2008. Of course, a lawsuit by groups opposed to the delisting resulted in the injunction mentioned above and the USFWS pulled the delisting.
It is rumored (I haven’t red it.) there is a new plan, by the Obama administration, to delisted wolves in Montana and Idaho. ( NOTE: As this is written the wolf IS DELISTED.) For now the listing remains and wolves are still protected in Wyoming. No one seems to agree with the Wyoming plan – except people in Wyoming where the wolves are causing a multitude of problems. Does States rights enter in here at all?
So here we go again. I have never had faith in the U. S. Fish and Wildlife service or The Idaho Fish and Game but I am willing to watch and see what happens.
If you have comments or news for Jim Foster please email him at: jim@jimfosteroutdoors.com
