August 31, 2002: Elk Gone - Save our Elk from Wolves from clardon@aboutmontana.net (Clarice Ryan)
Letters to the editor from St. Maries (Idaho) Gazette Record... Thank you, Mr. Bill Croke of Wyoming and Mr. John Nelson of Central Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition for your efforts to save our elk!
Elk gone
Bill Croke / The American Prowler
CAG Comment:
The following two articles address the affects of reintroducing wolves in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Many of the same problems are present with the federal government’s attempt to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Bitterroot/Selway Ecosystem (BSE).
End CAG Comment:
Northwestern Wyoming and nearby Montana and Idaho have long been known among sportsmen as prime elk hunting habitat (although in Colorado hunters harvest more elk on a yearly basis). Much of the Northern Rockies herd is centered in the "Greater Yellowstone ecosystem," that is, the three million acres of Yellowstone National Park, plus six million acres that make up the six national forests that surround the Park, a total of nine million acres. Elk migrate out of the Park every fall and winter to forage in the border zone of national forest and adjacent private land, and here they are fair game for hunters. This is called the "elk winter range."
When elk do this they "herd up" in large numbers even in the thousands across specific local geographic areas, places where snow depths aren't as great as in the Park, or where the range is frequently snow-free thanks to the Chinook-effect on the east slope of the Rockies. Typical places are the National Elk Refuge near Jackson, Wyoming; the southern reaches of Paradise Valley near Gardiner, Montana; and on vast Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holdings and private ranchland on those eastern mountain slopes near Cody, Wyoming.
These herds are easily monitored by federal and state wildlife management personnel using helicopters in remote areas, or through simple observation with spotting scopes and binoculars. Each winter, rough census numbers are compiled, especially the important "cow/calf" ratios. The cow/calf ratio is the main indicator of the future stable population and general health of the herd. In recent years the cow/calf ratio regionwide has dropped from a normal rate of "33 calves per 100 cows" down to the generally accepted number for last winter of "14 calves per 100 cows," according to Scott McMillion of the Bozeman Chronicle.
Declining elk numbers are fodder for many arguments as to their cause (drought, severe winters, higher hunting pressure in some areas), but it seems that the main reason for the decline of cow/calf ratios since 1995 is the presence of wolves in the Greater Yellowstone region.
The federally mandated "reintroduction" program that year and the next brought in 66 transplanted Canadian wolves to the Yellowstone and central Idaho regions whose numbers have since grown to an estimated 650 grouped into three dozen separate packs (200 Yellowstone, 100 Montana, 350 central Idaho). The Yellowstone bunch has expanded beyond the borders of the Park, and onto the adjoining federal, state and private lands. Livestock depredation (another contentious issue, though ranchers are reimbursed for losses) is not tolerated, and repeat offenders are "removed" (that is, shot) from the population. In the end, the main food source for the wolves are the elk, numbering 35,000 in Greater Yellowstone.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) may "delist" the wolves as early as 2003 since their increasing numbers have now met the federal guidelines under the auspices of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and they are to be managed by the aforementioned states. Montana, Wyoming and Idaho will each have to submit a management plan for federal approval in the next few months. Doing so will put great strain on the wildlife management budgets of those states.
They are all currently suffering budget shortfalls. Montana, for instance, is running a $57 million deficit, and the legislature lately is in emergency session to deal with it. Needless to say, these state wildlife management departments will take hits just like any other state agency. This at a time when shrinking elk populations (and moose, deer and bighorn sheep) will make for more careful big game management, and less incoming revenue from both resident and non-resident hunting license fees. And then there's the economic impact on towns such as Cody, Wyoming, and West Yellowstone and Livingston, Montana _ which have historically depended on an influx of autumn elk and deer hunters as an extension to the summer tourist season.
The USFWS, and Playing-God busybody environmentalists and their lawyers have given us large populations of high maintenance, top-of-the-food-chain predators, and are now walking away expecting state wildlife programs and local taxpayers to deal with them. This as the big game hunting culture of the Northern Rockies goes into decline. If the Feds and deep pockets enviro organizations love wolves so much, they should pay for their upkeep. And spare us the future inevitable lawsuits when the wolves are so numerous that the three states in question institute hunting seasons on them, to better control their numbers and discourage the decimation of big game herds and massive livestock depredation. Put up or shut up.
The above eco-engineering is only one example of hundreds around the country of the ESA run amok, and makes a good case for its reform. If the Republicans retain the House and take back the Senate, and if President Bush supports the idea, maybe it will happen.
Other than that, maybe we can rely on the Feds, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife et al. to come up with an elk "reintroduction" program when the population crashes in the coming years.
CAG Comment:
The environmental movement has a higher overall objective with the reintroduction of large predators than just reestablishing the species. Their first step is to eliminate the need for hunting. Next, they plan to work towards the elimination of private firearms ownership. Without the second step it is not possible to force socialism on the people of this country.
End CAG Comment:
The Endangered Species Act will be the death of the American West.
Bill Croke is a writer in Cody, Wyoming.
Nelson:
Uncontrolled predators
In 1998-1999 Carrie Schaeffer of Michigan Tech University, working under Dr. Rolf Peterson did a study that came to surface, she documented cow to calf elk ratios are at record lows 0 to 10 per hundred it takes a minimum of 35 to 40 calves to maintain a healthy elk herd. Confirming our assertions over the past several years that a biological crisis of catastrophic proportions had been going on. Yellowstone Park knew of the Schaeffer study, withheld the information from the American public in order to protect the wolf bureaucracy, and intentionally lied to the press for four solid years. The decision to suppress scientific information was made at the top by Glenn Plumb, Yellowstone's supervisor biologist.
Wolves are extremely prolific, it is not uncommon for wolves to travel 500 hundred miles, and have been known to travel up to 750 miles to establish new territories, with five to seven females per pack all reproducing, averaging seven to nine pups per litter it did not take them on to inhabit the tri-state areas (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.) This predator breeds at and an alarming rate of 34 percent per year.
Each wolf eats a biomass of at least 25 Elk per year, or 2500 elk per 100 wolves, not including "Sport Killing" or "Surplus Killing Reflex" Recent studies conducted in central Idaho by Horn Knockers Wildlife Institute, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Idaho, Idaho Bureau of Land Management and Idaho Department of Fish and Game, shows some very troubling numbers, 90 percent of all wolf kills are elk, 58 percent were calves, 31 percent were adult cows and 11 percent were bulls with deer comprising of the remainder. In 1997 one of northern Yellowstone's largest migrating elk herds it was estimated at 19,500 they have now been decimated to 9500 -10,000.
CAG Comment:
Once the game animals are gone the wolves will be forced to turn their attention on livestock and people.
End CAG Comment:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has suppressed the record low numbers since 1997 from the public. 350 bighorn sheep only about 40 remain, the moose are all but gone according to Montana state moose biologist Kurt Alt.
With an access of at least 720 wolves; and in three short years we could easily be at 1732. This means 43,300 elk per year are going to be fed to wolves without any new replacement calves! according to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Montana only has 130,000 elk, it won't be long of until the wolves turns its attention to domesticated livestock in a degree much larger than is already occurring, wolf depredation on livestock in Montana alone is 500% to 700 % more than the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will confirm. Wolf advocates who want to feed our wildlife to their wolves are convinced that they and only they should have the exclusive say in Leopold's version of the regulation. When Wolf advocates control the regulatory process, agendas and values that are anti-ranching, anti-property rights, and anti- hunting can be implemented.
The state of Idaho can look forward to being continuously held hostage in court for eternity by pro-wolf extremist if Idaho tries to delist the Wolf as an endangered species from its un-deserved protected status as; "non-essential and experimental". The only recourse Idaho has is asserting our sovereignty over our land and natural resources.(of which wildlife is one) Ed Bangs Wolf coordinator for the lower 48 sates says, "there are too many wolves. Idaho is supporting the burden of wolf populations.
Drs. Taylor and Walters warned in July 1989 in a report to Yellowstone National Park and the Department of Interior of the potential for major conflict arising from wolf introduction. It is because of the premeditated exclusion that our wildlife in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho have been decimated and our livestock industry which relies on the wildlife as a buffer between predators is at great risk due to uncontrolled predators, especially that prolific breeder, who has no natural predators, "The Wolf".
John Nelson
Central Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, Inc