Yesterday, Wilderness Watch and other organizations filed a petition urging the U.S. Forest Service (FS) to step up and protect wolves targeted by Idaho and Montana’s extermination campaigns, including within millions of acres of designated Wilderness on National Forests. Newly-enacted laws in the two states radically increase wolf killing through largely unrestricted killing methods and hunting seasons, plus barbaric programs that resemble 19th-century wolf bounties. Up to 1,800 wolves could be killed through these drastic measures, including nearly 90 percent of the wolf population in Idaho. The state of Idaho is targeting wolves with a goal of artificially inflating elk populations, despite the fact that elk populations are already at or above population objectives in most management units, and drought and excessive hunting quotas, not predation by wolves, have caused some elk populations to decline. The affected Wildernesses in Idaho are the Cecil D. Andrus-White Clouds, Frank Church-River of No Return, Gospel-Hump, Hells Canyon, Hemingway-Boulders, Jim McClure-Jerry Peak, Sawtooth, and the Selway-Bitterroot Wildernesses. In Montana, the affected Wildernesses are the Absaroka-Beartooth, Anaconda Pintler, Bob Marshall, Cabinet Mountains, Gates of the Mountains, Great Bear, Lee Metcalf, Mission Mountains, Rattlesnake, Scapegoat, Selway-Bitterroot, and Welcome Creek Wildernesses. Montana and Idaho’s new laws will accelerate the ongoing slaughter of wolves on public lands and Wilderness, which has been happening since their Endangered Species Act protections were removed, and their subsequent “management” was turned over to the states. Idaho, in particular, has long waged a War on Wolves that it has carried to horrific ends. The state is well-known for aerial gunning wolves in the Lolo Zone just north of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and using tracking data from collars to do it. In the River of No Return Wilderness, it hired a professional wolf trapper to wipe out two wolf packs deep in the Wilderness, and it illegally captured and collared wolves as part of a plan to kill up to 60 percent of wolves in the Wilderness. Making matters worse, in many cases, Idaho’s disgusting efforts have been aided and abetted by the Forest Service. Wilderness Watch has resisted Idaho’s efforts at every turn, often finding relief in the courts.
The Forest Service has the authority and mandate to protect these special places and their wildlife. The petition asks the Forest Service to issue new regulations and closure orders to prevent wolf killing by professional and subsidized hunters and trappers across nearly eight million acres of Wilderness in Idaho and Montana, including:
- Initiating a new rulemaking to safeguard the wilderness character of these Wildernesses.
- Prohibiting the bounty hunting of wolves in Wilderness.
- Prohibiting wolf hunting and trapping activities by private contractors, and by private individuals seeking reimbursement or selling hides or other parts of wolves, in Wilderness.
The petition asks the Forest Service to uphold its responsibility to protect untrammeled Wilderness, which includes allowing predators to exist in naturally occurring numbers and distribution. Wilderness Watch has long opposed the persecution of native wildlife and believe wolves should be left alone to perform their important ecological role, especially within Wilderness. It’s long past time for the Forest Service to stand up for wolves and Wilderness by ending its complicity in the ongoing slaughter of wolves. We’re represented by the non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice. |
