Comments on the wolf delisting rule for the Northern Rockies are due May 9.
One of the best summaries of what you may want to write is at the Sinapu blog. » Action Alert » Government aims to strip wolves in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana of their legal protections.
Idaho state government is very serious about making a big wolf reduction. It wasn’t just a one-day mouth-off by Governor Otter. Idaho Fish and Game recently had a “stakeholders” meeting where they wanted people to sit down and draw circles on areas where hunters would reduce the wolf population 35 to 40%. This is on top of an unspecified general wolf reduction to be carried out by the federal agency Wildlife Services (formerly more appropriately named, “Animal Damage Control”).
Conservationists refused to draw any lines.
Email your comments to WesternGrayWolf@fws.gov. Include ”RIN number 1018–AU53” in the subject line of the message.
The more detail you can provide in your comments, the better. The government has to take new information in comments seriously, and no doubt a federal judge will soon see if they have done so. Duplicate comments from a “click here, and send your message site” are useful, but nearly as good as an original email.
At our recent recent North American Wolf Conference in Flagstaff, AZ, a geneticist at UCLA presented detailed DNA analysis showing the genetics of the current wolf pack population in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming is excellent, but she also showed that with wolves limited to Yellowstone Park, inbreeding will increasingly take its toll. Of course, this is the true goal of Idaho Governor Otter and Governor Freudenthal of Wyoming.
Defenders just put up a video on YouTube starring Govneror Otter and that great anti-wolf rabble-rouser Ron Gillet.
If you would rather send in hard copy, the address is: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Western Gray Wolf Recovery Coordinator, 585 Shepard Way, Helena, Montana 59601. Include ”RIN number 1018–AU53” in the subject line of the letter.
If you want to click and send, here is Defenders action web site.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
