Idaho plans wolf hunting, trapping season without quotas

 Idaho's proposed 2011 wolf hunt will run without quotas in most parts of the state, wildlife officials said Friday.

"We really don't have a number we're trying to get to," Idaho Fish and Game director Virgil Moore said at a news conference in Boise. "What we're trying to do is be sure we can relieve both social and biological conflicts, where we have more wolves than needed. It's no different than any other big-game animal. We haven't established a number, but we will monitor the harvest to make sure we never get close to the delisting threshold that was established by the 2002 legislative plan and the plan established by the (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Service."

Idaho currently has about 1,000 wolves. Gray wolves could be reconsidered for federal endangered species protection if their numbers fall below 150 individuals or 15 breeding pairs in Idaho, Montana or Wyoming. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will decide on its wolf rules at its July 27-28 meeting in Salmon.

Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission meets July 14 to consider its own 2011 wolf hunt plan. Unlike Idaho, Montana wildlife managers proposed a quota of 220 wolves, distributed across 14 wolf management units. That's up from the 75 wolves allowed in the state's first modern-day wolf hunt in 2009.

Barely one-third of 1 percent of Montana's 19,000 wolf tag buyers killed a wolf that year. In Idaho, the success rate for its wolf hunt was just 1 percent. Moore said about 20,000 of the state's 30,000 tag buyers actually tried to hunt wolves that year.

"Seeing wolf tracks or wolf scat, even hearing wolves howl, is not the same thing as seeing a wolf and having an opportunity to take a wolf," Idaho Fish and Game big-game manager Jon Rachael said. Nevertheless, Idaho ranchers reported a significant drop in livestock depredations after the 2009 hunt. When a lawsuit canceled the 2010 hunt, those depredation counts went back up to average, he said.

Idaho is adding trapping to its allowable wolf-killing methods this year. The state has about 1,000 licensed trappers, but Moore said it was unknown how many would be skilled enough or willing to invest the time and equipment necessary to successfully trap wolves.

Montana's wolf season will not allow trapping, according to FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim.

"We're going to learn what we can about hunting before we add that," Aasheim said on Friday. "We want to be more surgical in our management."

Montana wolf hunters would have to report their kills within 12 hours, while Idaho hunters have 72 hours to contact game wardens about a kill.

Five areas will receive careful attention in the Idaho hunt, including the Lolo Zone along the Montana-Idaho border. Idaho authorized a population reduction there last year because those wolves were suspected of over-hunting elk herds.

Montana officials considered a similar action on their Bitterroot Valley side of the border, but dropped plans after the wolf was delisted.

Wolves also move across the border, so both states must be careful to preserve the genetic connectivity of the area, Moore said. But having the hunt in place should relieve some of the public concern about loss of elk there.

"That pent-up frustration is taken care of just by having the hunting season," Moore said. "The frustration we saw at check stations in 2008 went away in 2009 (the year of the first wolf hunt). Hunters knew we needed to manage wolves, and hunting is part of that management toolbox. Once they had that tag in their pocket, the frustration level dropped dramatically."