Seems to have been a fairly successful demonstration in this far northern Idaho town-
Sandpoint, Idaho protesters decry wolf hunt. Bonner County Daily Bee
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.
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Interesting to see the pro-wolf people coming out of the woodwork in this scenario and reading some of the comments in the Statesman. I think maybe I will have to eat my words a little about Idaho. 😉
ProWolf in WY,
Idaho is changing. Tim Egan had an essay about it and the wolf hunt today in the New York Times. Hunting Wolves and Men by Tim Egan. Egan has written a great deal about the changing West. This is a continuation of his work.
Interesting article Ralph.
When are they going to organize a protest in Boise? I’ll be there.
This is wonderful !
Kudos to these folks in Sandpoint being willing to literally stand up for wolves.
It’s amusing to see some of the rabid anti-wolf comments to the article complaining about the “Canadian wolves.” Sandpoint is maybe 60 miles from the Canadian border.
Do these nitwits really believe the wolves respected the artificial international boundary and never came a few miles south before they were reintroduced to Central ID in the mid-90s? And what was the origin of these wolves before Canada and the US declared themselves “nations” just a few hundred years ago?
Prowolf-
It is common for some contributers to this blog to think that Idaho is very anti-wolf. That is not true.
IDFG did a survey of Idaho adult residents that they published in their Idaho Fish and Game News in May of this year:
31% of the respondents wanted to reduce the wolf population, 34% wanted no reduction,and 35% were neutral.
With the “save them all” and the “reduce them” groups being about equal in number, the neutral folks will be the ones who tip the scales on the wolf issue. When certain people on this site call all Idahoans potato heads and make other disparaging remarks about Idaho residents in general, they run the risk of pushing more people from the neutral group into the “reduce them” crowd.
And what would they think if the border was at 54 degrees 40″ not at the 49 th parallel?
Remember the motto 54-40 or fight?
I timed the Canyon Pack in Yellowstone last fall as they traveled from Norris to Canyon (about 14 miles). It took them 1 hour and 15 minutes. Wolves could travel from the Canadian border to Sandpoint in less than a day.
Larry, a lot of what I am reading on this site and on the links provided, have been proving me wrong on some of my misconceptions of Idahoans. I suppose Wyomingites are looked at this way sometimes. 🙁
Debra K
They also held a demonstration in Coeur d’Alene. I haven’t heard how that one went.
Ralph, have there been protests in Boise? Have you heard of any in Montana?
THE MISSOULIAN quoted the Idaho hunter who killed the first wolf of the season as saying that after the kill, “I had an adrenal rush as I heard wolves howling all around me.” Did think about why the wolves were howling, or about the negative impact of hunting and killing so many of them will change the stability of their packs and of the wolf population as a whole?
From the Spikesman-Review
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo/2009/aug/28/wolf-alliance-cda-protest-hunt/
“Members of the Sandpoint-based North Idaho Wolf Alliance turned out at the Coeur d’Alene Fish and Game office Friday morning to protest the state’s first regulated wolf hunt. Alongside the protesters was a smaller group who came out to show their support of the upcoming hunts. Approximately 40 protestors gathered at the scene, while 15 wolf hunt supporters gathered. The rally, which began at 11 a.m., consisted mainly of protestors and supporters carrying signs.”