Photo: Greg Smith/Flickr
Despite urging from conservationists that allowing hunting of gray wolves on protected federal lands is "asinine," a federal judge has denied the request for an injunction against the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's plan to eradicate a pair of wolf packs residing in the 2.4 million-acre Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
The suit, brought by a cadre of environmental groups including Defenders of Wildlife and Center for Biological
Diversity, argued that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's (IDFG) plan to cull wolf packs violates a host of federal wilderness statutes aimed at keeping federal lands protected from human influence. Last month, the IDFG hired a hunter-trapper to eliminate the packs in central Idaho, which was home to some of the first Canadian packs brought to the region in the mid-90s in a bid to reintroduce wolves to the Rockies.
In his ruling, US District Judge Edward Lodge specifically states that his denial of an injunction is not reflective of the merit of the plaintiffs' arguments against the hunt. Instead, he writes that he denied the injunction because the plaintiffs failed to show that an injunction would be able to prevent immediate harm.
While the plaintiffs will still be able to challenge the legality of IDFG's plan, trapping can still start unhindered for the time being, despite the trapping occurring in land designated as federal wilderness, which is supposed to receive the highest protections possible.
“Sending someone into a wilderness area to exterminate wildlife is asinine,” lead plaintiff Ralph Maughan told the Idaho State Journal.
The purported goal of the wolf cull is to boost elk numbers, which have declined as habitat has disappeared and wolf populations have grown, for the sake of hunters. In the Idaho Statesman, Rocky Barker took a deep look at the plan touted by IDFG Director Virgil Moore, and the piece shows just how controversial the trapping planning is. From the story:
Wolf advocates in Idaho and nationally are angry with Idaho’s aggressive efforts to reduce wolf numbers. But many conservation groups had supported Moore and the department, hopeful that he can bring the same respect to state wolf management that Fish and Game brought to mountain lions in the early 1970s.
Deciding to hire staff to eliminate entire packs of wolves is more than they can tolerate.
Barker notes that Moore hoped to bring hunters and wildlife advocates together, which isn't a totally hypocritical goal; hunters can be great conservationists, after all. But wolf hunting is another beast, as displayed by the sheer animosity some wolf hunting advocates have towards the predators.
And considering that the incredible recovery of the United States' wolves has turned into a truly bitter fight over how many of them should be killed, it's impossible to see how Moore's plan to use state funds to eradicate entire packs on federal lands could be anything but provocative.
IDFG's push comes as grey wolves have been steadily lost Endangered Species Act protections in region after region, with states like Michigan and Wyoming being quick to implement wolf hunting seasons. The Idaho wolves are part of the Northern Rocky Mountain population. That population lost ESA protections in 2012, and the population declined from a 2011 high of 1,804 to 1,674 following the opening of hunting.
The population floor for the region is currently set at around 1,000 based on the research of state and federal ecologist, which means states will likely keep issuing hunting permits, a practice that ranchers will applaud and conservation groups will frown at. What tends to get lost somewhere in the middle is actual, solid science assessing ecological health and productivity.
If Moore wants to grow elk populations, he might have more success trying to find them more land instead of trying to kill off their predators. One thing is for certain though: Trying to cull wolves on federal land that's specifically designated to harbor wildlife is an incredibly antagonistic move from an official who claims to want to work with wildlife groups.