RMEF Warns of Colorado Wolf Reintroduction Ballot Initiative

[TRnCO]

I agree, there should be a hunting season for wolves, but to say wolves are easier to control, certainly not by hunting. By trapping and aerial gunning, maybe.

A hunting season is the hard part. In this liberal leaning state, how many years do you suppose it'll take, past the point of "sustainable wolf numbers", to get a hunting season established? This state is on the brink of stopping mtn. lion and bobcat hunting, do you think that it'll be easy to get a wolf season established? I don't, not for one second.

[Irving]

I'd say you're right that just a hunting season alone is not necessarily going to control wolf populations, but I guess we don't really know in this state since it hasn't happened before. I'm sure there is some data in other states, but I've not looked at that or heard. As long as ranchers are able to eliminate problem wolves, then I think things will be manageable. I agree that the future of hunting in Colorado looks dismal politically.

[davsel]

What is the benefit to introducing wolves to Colorado?

[Irving]

That's a good question. I guess it's similar to asking what the benefit of having grass around your house.

I personally like the idea of having all the animals on the landscape that were here when we got here. If we're going to actively select how wild our wilderness is going to be, might as well just pave every forest imo.

[Bailey Guns]

I don't know enough to have an informed opinion buy it seems to me letting nature take it's course in terms of wolves might be a better option. I know, for the most part, wolf re-introduction in Idaho wasn't very popular. People here hate them.

My neighbor saw two wolves on the hillside above our, and their, home a few months ago. Wish I could've seen them.

[CS1983]

That's a good question. I guess it's similar to asking what the benefit of having grass around your house.

I personally like the idea of having all the animals on the landscape that were here when we got here. If we're going to actively select how wild our wilderness is going to be, might as well just pave every forest imo.

Then you'll be ripping up that Kentucky Bluegrass or whatever you have? Cus unless you are running true wild grasses, it's not the case. The modern lawn is a post-ww2 accretion which needs to die. It's an egregious misuse of water in states like CO.

The reality is man is master over nature.

Wolves are vicious creatures which deserve no quarter. The love affair will end when they start killing people and everyone remembers why they were practically eradicated to begin with.

[Irving]

They were eradicated to begin with because when the Europeans got here, they just kept doing what they'd always done and people didn't understand that things were not infinite. Further, every wild animal is vicious. More people are probably injured by deer in car accidents than will ever be killed by wolves.

As to Bailey's point, it really seems like all these issues are mostly social. There are always those who are for or against and usually the issues are made up. Idaho has under 1,000 wolves and people hate them? I'd have to say that those people are morons. The wolf to people interaction has got to be so infrequent.

[TRnCO]

Haven't you heard, the state of Colo. takes in more money for "wildlife viewing" then they do from the hunting industry. I read some where, where a wolf lover said, "a living wolf is worth more than a dead one", based on what someone has decided "wildlife viewing" brings into the state. I suppose any NR that drives through this state is considered a "wildlife viewer"..


I'm not sure that the number is accurate, but I read on another site that the pro-wolf movement people are targeting 1000 wolves in Colo. That lady on the podcast said that a typical wolf needs between 7 and 8# of meat a day. The math, 1000 wolves multiplied by 365 days a year eating an avg. sized elk of about 650# = about 4500 elk a year.

I wonder, where will they find 1000 wolves to transplant and who pays for it?

[Irving]

Obviously wolves aren't going to live on just elk alone, but you're correct that those numbers matter.

That 1,000 number doesn't seem real. Even with a forced introduction, I doubt they'd try for a number that high. I think you're right. By the time they trapped 1,000 wolves, they could have two established packs. Wish real info were more easily accessible.

[Bailey Guns]

As to Bailey's point, it really seems like all these issues are mostly social. There are always those who are for or against and usually the issues are made up. Idaho has under 1,000 wolves and people hate them? I'd have to say that those people are morons. The wolf to people interaction has got to be so infrequent.

I don't know that I'd say they're morons. Most of the wolves are in the panhandle...probably a third of the state. Most of the complaints come from ranchers and farmers that lose a significant amount of livestock to wolves or those in the hunting industry who say they've decimated ungulate herds in the area. Anecdotally, I'd say there is at least some evidence that's true. I live basically on the edge of two of the biggest wilderness areas in the state and I've spent a significant amount of time in the back country. I've not yet seen an elk in Idaho. I've seen them in SE Washington.

You're right about the number of wolves in the state. Estimates of 90 packs at 6 to 9 wolves per pack are common. Fish and Game has to wage a PR battle they don't wanna wage with the population. It's not so much that people are against wolves. It's that they were given a number and said that's where the population should roughly remain...150 to keep them off the endangered species list. But now there are 5 times that number and pro-wolf activists want even more. It's a big political thing here.

Personally, I think they're magnificent animals...just like elk. I wouldn't want to kill one. On the other hand, my livelihood isn't related to them.

In March 2015, Idaho Fish and Game reported that 19 wolves were culled along the Lolo range straddling the Idaho Montana border in an effort to improve elk survival. Elk numbers in the Lolo Zone dropped from 16,000 elk to about 2,100 animals in 2010, and wolves were deemed to be the biggest predator to elk cows and calves.

In some cases they're allowing the wolves to basically do to elk as what people did to wolves.

I don't have the answer.