“If a wolf turns up in Rocky Mountain National Park, it will be protected by the Endangered Species Act. But plans by the Bush administration to remove ESA protection from Yellowstone’s wolves could make it incredibly hard for the predators to migrate down to Colorado.”
The above is from an article on delisting in National Parks Traveller.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
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According to the Los Angeles Times, the reintroduction effort has cost 27 million dollars. By my estimation, that means that each and every wolf in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming is worth about $18,000.00 a piece. Now we are going to sell them for a $19.00 hunting tag? Every taxpayer in America should be up in arms about that, regardless of how they feel about wolves.
On top of that when Wildlife Services shoots a wolf that has killed a cow calf or two, or a couple sheep, the killing operation usually costs more than the lost livestock. This is especially true if they use aircraft.
In addition, until now, Defenders has paid the livestock owner on top of that (that is private dollars), and the state of Idaho has had a special slush fund for livestock killed by wolves, but never found (but somehow they can divine that wolves did it).
I heard a lengthy NPR article this morning on the delisting. They had Ed Bangs, Steve Nadeau, Suzanne Stone and somebody I can’t recall as interviewees. It was a good report on the topic. Might be more this evening.
Salle:
Here’s the link to the NPR story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19266696