Compromise needed on wolf population
- From: chatnoir <wolfbat359a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 12:46:23 -0700 (PDT)
http://internetservices.readingeagle.com/blog/editorials/archives/2008/04/compromise_need.html
April 07, 2008
Compromise needed on wolf population
The Issue: The Bush administration turns management of the wolf herds
in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming over to the states, which want to reduce
the population by about 80 percent. Environmental groups object.
Our Opinion: Both sides need to take a more realistic view.
A showdown is set over one of the great success stories that has grown
out of the Endangered Species Act of 1973: the gray wolf, also known
as the timber wolf.
After being eradicated in 46 of the contiguous 48 states -- remote
areas of Montana and Minnesota maintained small populations -- 14
wolves were captured in Canada and reintroduced to Yellowstone
National Park in 1995.
Additional animals were released in the park in the next few years,
and the population eventually grew to more than 1,500 individuals,
some of which have begun to roam outside of the park.
As a result, at the recommendation of Interior Secretary Dirk
Kempthorne, a former governor of Idaho, President Bush decided to
terminate federal protection for wolves throughout Idaho, Montana and
Wyoming.
Several environmental groups objected, claiming the move is little
more than a gift from a lame-duck president to staunch supporters in
the ranching industry who think the only good wolf is a dead wolf.
They served notice they will attempt to block the move in federal
court.
What is at stake is whether officials in those three states will be
able to control the wolf populations in areas of the states that are
not under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, where no
hunting is allowed.
The states plan to issue hunting permits as well as to allow ranchers
to shoot wolves on sight when the animals threaten their herds.
Officials from the three states claim 300 wolves located throughout
the northern Rocky Mountains -- 20 percent of the current number --
would be enough to sustain a population.
Environmentalists claim between 2,000 and 5,000 animals are needed to
maintain a viable population.
And there seems to be little room for compromise. But there must be
compromise.
The wolf is not the first wild animal in North America that has been
brought back from the brink of extinction. A century ago the white-
tailed deer herd in Pennsylvania was virtually wiped out. But as a
result of a tremendous management program conducted by the
Pennsylvania Game Commission, deer have repopulated the commonwealth.
Bison, too, were almost extinct until repopulation efforts -- mostly in
large state and national parks throughout the West -- saved this
species that is so emblematic of the United States.
And the reintroduction of California condors into the Grand Canyon is
one of the great environmental stories of our time, although their
future is still in doubt.
With deer and bison, hunting plays an important role in preventing the
herds from getting too large, and there is no reason the same cannot
be true with the wolf. But the key issue seems to be the size of the
pack.
Carnivores such as wolves don't require the same number of animals as
grazers and browsers, such as bison and deer, to maintain viable
populations, but it seems 300 animals spread across three large states
would be barely able to remain viable.
What is needed here is sound wildlife management techniques, not
ranchers' fears that wolves will destroy their livelihood or
environmental hysterics about animal rights.
What we are getting is officials in three states that would prefer the
wolves had never been reintroduced to Yellowstone and environmental
groups that would prefer wolves are never hunted again.
Both views are shortsighted.
.
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