Here is a press release that came out from the office of Mike Crapo, the senator from Idaho, regarding a reimbursement program for livestock depredations by wolves. In it he states that since the delisting Defenders has stopped their reimbursement program in Idaho, which is not entirely accurate. For those of you who who have been following the Northern Rockies wolves situation we just wanted to clarify that while the lawsuit is still on going Defenders is in fact still continuing the reimbursement program.
Carter Niemeyer, Rick Williamson ad members of the field team discuss the use of telemetry
It is grazing season in central Idaho, and the sheep and
cattle are being turned out onto the public lands. Many sheep bands, with ewes
and lambs, are either being trucked, or trailed into the Big Wood River Valley.
It is situated in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, this 756,000 acres was
set aside by Congress in 1972 "... in order to
assure the preservation and protection of the natural, scenic, historic,
pastoral, and fish and wildlife values and to provide for the enhancement of
the recreational values associated therewith..." In this magnificent part
of Idaho over 12,000 sheep will pass through this valley during the summer,
which is also home to wolves, bears and coyotes. Defenders of Wildlife,
Idaho Fish and Game, US Forest Service, Wildlife Services and the local sheep
producers are working together on a project that will use a number of different
tools and techniques to try and keep the wolves out of the sheep bands that
graze in this area.
This is the second
year of the Big
Wood River Valley Project, one of the most ambitious ones we have been
involved in. This project illustrates the evolution from smaller projects that focus
on just one or two producers, to more inclusive projects that work over a much
larger area and includes all the producers potentially affected by the local
wolf packs. Last year there were at least two wolf packs in the area, and one
of them had been involved in previous depredations. With the help of a team of
field technicians who used an array of non-lethal wolf deterrents, such as
telemetry, turbo-fladry, RAG boxes, and air-horns, we managed to reduce the
losses from last year by a significant amount. All the local state and federal
agencies were involved with this project, and four of the biggest sheep
producers in Idaho were all impressed enough by the project that they signed on
again for this year.
Randy & Roger, members of the field team, learn to set up turbofladry
This year we hope to reproduce the success of the project,
and we will be working hard to try and deter the local wolves from getting
close to the sheep this season. Last Friday we held the training day for the
field team, the sheep producers and the herders. Rick Williamson from the
Wildlife Services, and Carter Niemeyer the former Wolf Recovery Coordinator for
the US Fish and Wildlife Service helped run the training. We practiced using
the telemetry equipment that will help us locate the wolves and give us an idea
of how close to the sheep they might be. We also practiced setting up RAG
boxes and fladry,
two non-lethal wolf deterrents that I have talked about earlier in this blog.
These tools would be used if we know that there are wolves close at hand, or if
we are near a wolf den or rendezvous site. We also issued the field technicians
with a few noise makers such as air horns so they will be able to scare the
wolves off if they get to close to the livestock. These technicians will work
from early evening through to morning, as this is the time that wolves are most
active. As the herders set up camp, and the sheep start to bed down, the
technicians will turn on their telemetry equipment and start their night’s work
scanning
for wolves.
The technicians will work closely with the herders and producers
to determine what are the best tools to use in these situations, and they will
also advise the herders if they think that wolves are in the area. Any project
like this depends on good communication between all organizations involved, and
after a successful training day like the one we had, hopes are high going into
the second year of this project. Already there has been media
interest in this project, and the spotlight will be on us, and the wolves
throughout the season.
Seems funny in a terrible kind of way that with the wolf delisitng last month that two groups on opposite ends of the debate would both sue the federal government. But that is just what is happening as both Defenders of Wildlife, as well as many other conservation groups, and the state of Wyoming have brought lawsuits against the federal government. We, of course, want them back on the list and Wyoming wants to not be excluded from the delisting. Oh, and Gov. Butch Otter still wants the first license in Idaho.
WASHINGTON – Today, Defenders of Wildlife and 12 other conservation groups filed a lawsuit asking the courts to reverse the ill-timed and unwarranted removal of Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies. The lawsuit is a last resort, and only comes after exhausting all other reasonable options.
Regrettably, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar failed to fully consider both scientific and legal inadequacies underlying the Bush administration’s delisting rule before adopting it on April 2, 2009. The Bush administration delisting rule adopted by Salazar essentially allows over two-thirds of the region’s wolves to be killed before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would even consider stepping back in and restoring protections.
The following is a statement by Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife:
“After working more than 20 years to restore wolves here, it’s a thrill to see the wolf population finally on the threshold of recovery with more than 1600 wolves in the region. However, we cannot ignore that this delisting plan fails to protect their future and would allow states like Idaho, which has demanded that all wolves be removed ‘by any means necessary,’ to decimate the population to less than a few hundred wolves. We need a delisting plan that allows the wolf population to thrive while addressing the needs and concerns of our regional residents.
“We had hoped to avoid the need for litigation, but Secretary Salazar’s decision to go forward with the Bush administration’s delisting plan, which allows states to reduce wolf numbers from 1650 (not including pups), to a mere 450 region wide, left us no choice.
“We are going to court in order to ensure that wolves are fully recovered and treated as key components of the Northern Rockies ecosystem – not as token isolated subpopulations maintained at the most minimum levels in national parks and wilderness areas.
“We had expected at this point to be celebrating the recovery of the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies. Instead, after decades of recovery efforts, tremendous support and investment from the American public, impressive efforts by federal and state wildlife agencies, and one of the most successful wildlife restorations in history, the future of the gray wolf in the Rocky Mountains is once again in jeopardy.
“We look forward to one day seeing wolves fully recovered and under state management, but both the delisting plan and the state plans currently in place are not adequate to ensure the long-term recovery of wolves.
“Sadly, rather than committing to ensuring the long-term recovery of wolves, Secretary Salazar, like his predecessor in the Bush administration, has forced us again to the courts to reverse a delisting rule that puts us right back where we started – with a wolf population that cannot survive without federal protection.”
Defenders of Wildlife is represented in this litigation by Earthjustice, along with plaintiffs Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Western Watersheds Project, Wildlands Project, and Hells Canyon Preservation Council.
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