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Wolf rule in effect

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By Cory Hatch Jackson Hole, Wyoming
March 11, 2008

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials announced Friday that a revised rule governing wolf conflicts in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana is now in effect.

The “10(j) rule” stays in effect until the Rocky Mountain gray wolf loses Endangered Species Act protection; it gives the states increased authority to kill wolves for harming wild elk herds and allows individuals on private or public land to kill a wolf if the animal is attacking their livestock or dogs, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service news release.

Environmental groups have called the modified rule a “de facto delisting.”
The rule was published in the Federal Register on Jan. 27. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials announced the delisting of the gray wolf Feb. 21.

Barring an injunction, the delisting goes into effect in late March. A number of conservation groups have joined in a lawsuit that would prevent the federal government from removing wolves from Endangered Species Act protection. Environmentalists say the Idaho and Wyoming wolf-management plans would allow wildlife managers to kill too many wolves.

Under the final 10(j) rule, state wildlife managers would normally need to send a proposal to Fish and Wildlife each time they want to kill wolves for harming elk herds. The proposal would then be reviewed by five independent scientific experts and sent out for public comment.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Wyoming officials say Wyoming wildlife managers will try to enact a management protocol that would allow the states to specify a number of conditions that, when met, would allow the state to kill wolves for harassing elk without scientists’ review or public comments in each case.

A copy of the revision can be viewed at www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/wolf/.

the relevant paragraph reads as follows:
The 2008 modification to the 2005 nonessential experimental population rule became effective on February 27th, 2008. That rule only applies in the experimental population areas of State’s with approved wolf management plans. It allows anyone on private or public land to legally shoot a wolf in the act of attacking their stock animals [horses, mules, donkeys, llamas, and goats] [color=red]or their dog [any breed][/color]. Such incidents must be reported within 24 hours. In addition, the modification provides a science-based process for the States or Tribes to proposed wolf removal if wolves are demonstrated to be having a major impact on wild ungulate herds.
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its a start and about time.....

here here

This should have been done years ago!!! Maybe then good Ol Charlie would still be alive.

from the Billings Gazette
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... twodot.txt

Wolf blamed for Two Dot sheep killings
By The Gazette Staff

Wildlife officials confirmed Friday that a wolf killed five sheep and injured five more near Two Dot.

On March 5, a landowner reported seeing a black wolf near his flock. After investigating, USDA Wildlife Services officials concluded that a wolf had attacked the sheep. It is not known if the wolf was alone, and other evidence of wolves in the area was not found.

No known wolf packs have been documented in the Two Dot area.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials plan to catch the animal, fit it with a radio collar and release it for further observation.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks could not be reached Monday night for more details.

Published on Tuesday, March 11, 2008.
Last modified on 3/11/2008 at 12:24 am

that did not take long Liberals would rather collar the damn thing to find the rest of the pack and do nothing rather then snare the damn stock killer

I am speaking from expierence
When you run in wolf country you gotta modify your game plan
before you cut loose.
I will protect my dogs to the very end but you gotta beat the wolves to the tree.
Trust me by the time I found my dogs the big badd wolves were gone.

My new rules
Run no more than two dogs and silent on track if possible.
I don't run old tracks.
Have a strong runner well armed beatin feet to the tree.
Run big bells and sometimes have two per collar.
I also hoot and howler if we cross fresh wolf tracks to let em know I"m comming.

What I am saying is I see a lot wolf tracks almost every loop i hike every week and have only seen a few live wolves in the light of day in past three years.

Hunting wolves without the use of calls is not going to do shit to slowing
the population.
The canadains have already proven traps and snares are the only way to even start to slow the population and that is tough because of private ground issues.

I want to legally kill a wolf as bad as the next guy but good luck trying to fill a tag leagally.
Ive guided elk, deer and bear hunts in two states for over 15 years and y I might have had the oppertunity to knock a wolf down onlya few times.

I'll bet most hound hunters will never see one during shooting light.

This is only my opinion and only lets me vioce my frustration with the system.
Yea it might be a start but with the odds stacked so high the goal will never never never be reached mark my words.

Learn to run your hounds in wolf country and keep your fingers crossed.

I give them all a hug before I turn em loose and hike after them as fast as I can go for and old fart.

I just know it doesn't change anything for me other than the legality of it all means nothing I Haven't carried a pistol since my dogs got killed
I now carry a 308 so I can reach out a touch em.

I have been protecting my hounds from wolves for years and sometimes I loose the game.
Thats why I don't run high dollar dogs.

I know of a small pack right now that is stealing kills from a female that has been in the area this year and I also have noticed the cats are staying
up higher on the ridges in heavier cover and in the rocks especially to bed down.
I think the wolves are changing the cats program and the pressure is leaving them less time to revisit kills.

I have found only one dead female and it has been turned into fish and game. No sign of wolf attack but it some how starved to death and froze during that 30 below we had.

The wolf is a sucker and will kill just for the fun of doing so and if it can't kill something it will haunt it to the point of starvation and stess of constant prssure.

They gonna put a counter on that sheep killers collar

I got or my dogs got a taste of porqupine for the first time this weekend had two coons treed and low and behold a porqupine was right there under the tree I shocked them off of it but one of my dogs was bad took it to a vet $700 dollars later I found out how much I love my dogs.Can not even imagine how I would of felt if they were dead from a wolf kill and I do run in wolf country .Thanks for the info Thomas

Thomas, for those of us who run where there are no wolves you've given us and everyone else a pretty solid understanding of what it's like for a houndsman in Wolf country. I usually hug my hounds before releasing due to highways and the coyotes penchant to run for miles after leaving the area it's comfortable in. Not a good situation for you folks for sure. Paul Conway

adrich wrote:I got or my dogs got a taste of porqupine for the first time this weekend had two coons treed and low and behold a porqupine was right there under the tree I shocked them off of it but one of my dogs was bad took it to a vet $700 dollars later I found out how much I love my dogs.Can not even imagine how I would of felt if they were dead from a wolf kill and I do run in wolf country .Thanks for the info Thomas

You need a new vet. My vet costs 45$ for a porcupine. That inlcudes knocking the dog out and removal. The most I've ever seen was $150 that was for a dog the had quills down his throat.

I know down in Moab they will charge you an even $500. That was for three dogs. The one dog the lady said had 692 quills. I didn't realize a Porky had that many quills. I should have taken a picture.

Its about time. Ive lost three dogs in the last six years. Two of them were top dogs. I cant wait to get even. I have only seen one wolf and he was moving so fast I didnt know what he was till it was gone. I think people are going to be surprised how hard it is to fill a tag. But at least we can try to defend whats ours.

Exactly
Even as much time as I spend in wolf country I am only just starting to realize what a huge impact even a single wolf does in an area.

Elk, Deer and Big Horn sheep are under constant pressure and soon become so stessed they are weak. Wolves aren't like cats they don't kill with short bursts of speed like a lion.
They will literally push a group of animals to the point of exahaustion and then kill what ever is left stuck in drifts, deep snow or just finally gives up.
They do it out of shear fun of the run.

I have a bet with a partner of mine that less than a six wolves per year will be killed in the national forest (doesn't include private lands) by hunters when they are delisted in montana.
Thats even if over 5000 tags are sold.

Thomas you are exactly right! I have been a big game guide for over five years in NW Montana. I spend 6 days a week from daylight til dark, for nine to ten weeks a year in the back country, and have only seen a couple wolves in the daylight. Only one of em was in rifle range.
The wolf population here is getting to be a problem, but the country is too thick and timbered to hunt them without a call or something. I don't know how the Fish cops expect to control the numbers by issuing tags and hunting conventionally!!
Your also right in that the Canadians are doing it somewhat right , but we all know the politically correct powers that be will probably never give us a decided advantage to actually control the wolves!! I think, and maybe this is just me, this new supposed wolf tag is a mere passifier to made to look like they want to control the pop. All the while trying to dodge lawsuits from wolf proponents. Meanwhile our elk, deer sheep, and moose populations are being devastated.
All we can hope for is that common sense will prevail, but how often does that actually happen!!!
Jay