Fish and Game Director: Wolves are Here to Stay

By Cal Groen, Idaho Department of Fish and Game The Idaho Fish and Game wolf management plan aims to maintain the gray wolf's place on the Idaho landscape. The plan is meant to manage wolves as other big game species are managed successfully in this state. One part of that success, once wolves are removed from the list of endangered species, will be to maintain Idaho's control of the wolf population rather than allow it to fall to a point that places wolves back onto the federal list and under federal management. Long experience teaches us that wildlife cannot be managed too close to a strict line. We do not do that with elk herds, where hunters typically take around 15 percent annually of a species with a natural reproduction rate of more than 25 percent. Hunting is one of the primary management tools available to Fish and Game. Through effective management, healthy deer and elk herds in most of Idaho have supported wolf recovery well beyond levels specified by the federal government. Fish and Game will apply the same professional wildlife management practices to wolves as those applied to elk, white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose, black bears, and mountain lions; all of which have recovered from critically low populations during the early 1900s. What we can do, and fully intend to do, is monitor wolf populations intensively through hard work and solid science. If our work shows that, for whatever reasons, wolf numbers appear to be sliding toward a precipice, action will be taken to stop that slide. The key is using science to adapt our management to actual conditions at ground level. To keep the record straight, the plan calls for careful and adaptive management of Idaho's wolf populations. Wolf management will be a dynamic program that we will all continue to learn from. The point of wolf management will be to stabilize numbers, not to cut wolves to an absolute minimum. In fact, the plan recognizes wilderness area packs as "core" populations and as "source" areas for surrounding regions. One other thing we know: Our public surveys show that once wolf populations are delisted and managed, animosity toward wolves will substantially decline. Our goals to manage wolves in Idaho responsibly, realistically, and according to our plan, will never fully satisfy those wanting more wolves, nor will it satisfy those wanting no wolves. But the state of Idaho has promised the nation that wolves are here to stay and we will manage viable and healthy populations. The plan can be viewed on the Fish and Game website: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/wildlife/wolves/state/draft_plan/WolfP… I believe most people in Idaho will find the plan to be thoughtful and balanced. Cal Groen is director of Idaho Fish and Game.