Although wolves were reintroduced into Idaho in 1995, they remained on the Federal Endangered Species List until spring 2011. Today, Federal Wildlife Services and Idaho Fish and Game monitor 786 wild wolves.
This summer, five independent conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, and the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Department for mishandling a wolf-killing program, which is aimed at keeping wolf populations in check. The lawsuit includes several former employees testifying about inhumane wolf trappings and shootings in the forest regions of the North Fork, Clearwater and the Lolo Hunting Zone.
Gary Macfarlene, director of one conservationist group behind the lawsuit, Friends of the Clearwater, said helicopters were used to exhaust the wolves before the animals were shot from the air. Macfarlene said traps that are regularly set out for the wild canines also failed to hit the target and instead caused inhumane injuries.
“This is the only case that I am aware of where Wildlife Services has been called in to kill a native species that we used to have enlisted under the Endangered Species List,” Macfarlene said. “That’s why we think that this program is one of the reasons that we, as an organization, joined with this lawsuit.”
Section 73 of the lawsuit states, “In 2014, Idaho Wildlife Services killed 24 wolves by shooting them from helicopters, five wolves by neck snaring them and 20 wolves by trapping them in foothold traps, where they either died of exposure or were later shot.”
The lawsuit has four clauses explaining why the case has become a legal issue. An 2011 environmental assessment estimated an overpopulation of wolves in Idaho, which justifies controlled killings of wolf populations.
Talasi Brooks, a representative associate attorney for the Advocates of the West, said she the first claim of the lawsuit is that an Environmental Impact Statement is what the state needs instead.
Brooks said that an EIS is an analysis statement that requires further information about wolf killings, behavior and overall population based on segmented locations, which could help shed light on the overpopulation debate. The lawsuit’s second claim is that a 2011 wolf environmental assessment was an insufficient general analysis and failed to look at alternative solutions to Idaho wolf numbers.
Brooks said the third and fourth claims correlate with each other and are about evaluating elk populations.
“Idaho Fish and Game, and to a smaller extent, Wildlife Services are making an assumption that killing wolves is the right way to increase elk population,” Brooks said.
However, MacFarlene said that elk populations are not only threatened by wolves, but also by bears and cougars. In addition, he said other factors, such as disease and loss of habitat, can impact the number of elk in the state.
Jim Hamleck, an undercover weapons permit instructor and hunting enthusiast, said finding a balance between populations is key.
“They need to manage both animals,” Hamleck said. “When one population grows it affects the other population. They’re not independent of one another. The predator-prey is not independent of one another.”
Catherine Keenan
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