Wolves in Idaho's "Lolo Zone" Being Gunned Down by U.S. Government

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Last edited Tue Feb 16, 2016, 10:12 PM - Edit history (1)

The Wildlife News
February 8, 2016


Moscow, Idaho -- Aerial gunning of wild wolves is under way in remote and rugged areas of the Clearwater National Forest, conducted by the USDA's "Wildlife Services" agency at the behest of the Idaho State Fish & Game department.
The government is using helicopters to kill wolves in the so-called "Lolo Zone," which covers portions of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and stretches north across the North Fork Clearwater drainage.

Despite the low wolf population in the area and throughout the state, aerial gunning operations are occurring in remote areas of the Clearwater National Forest.
The North Fork Clearwater contains close to 1-million acres of road-less public wild-lands that qualify for wilderness designation.
These wild-lands offer some of the best habitat for large carnivores in the entire Lower 48.
Despite this, the Idaho Fish & Game Dept. seems to be trying to sanitize the wild landscape for game animals.

"The Idaho Fish & Game Department is wrongly blaming the decline of elk populations in the Lolo Zone on native carnivores, including gray wolves," said Gary MacFarlane, Ecosystem Director of the Friends of the Clearwater.
"Everyone, including the Idaho Fish & Game Department, knows the decline is due to long-term habitat change in that area.
Targeting predators like the (endangered) gray wolf is unscientific, won't work to boost elk numbers, and violates the wildness of these public lands."

"Excellent habitat for predators like gray wolves, lynx, wolverines, and fisher exists throughout the Clearwater National Forest, including the Lolo Zone," said Ken Cole,
Idaho Director of Western Watersheds Project.
"But the Idaho Fish & Game Department wants to turn this wild country into an elk farm and that's ridiculous and inappropriate."

Conservation groups are especially concerned by the precedent of the wolf killing in the
Lolo Zone that uses radio collars to track the packs, because earlier this year, the Idaho Fish & Game Department landed helicopters in the iconic Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness to collar elk and "accidentally" collared a number of wolves too

"The collaring of wolves appears to be one strategy that Idaho Fish & Game uses to track down and kill wolves in the Lolo Zone," said Gary MacFarlane.
"It is likely that the department collared the wolves in the Frank Church area so that they would eventually know the location of those individuals and their entire packs."

More:
http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2016/02/08/wolves-in-idahos-lolo-zone-being-gunned-down-by-government/


Call or write USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack
C/O
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave. S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20250

USDA Information Hotline: [phone]
Ask for the Office of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack


More on USDA's "Wildlife Services"
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/lethal_wildlife_management/facts/usda-wildlife-services-inefficient-and-inhumane.html