The Wolf Hunt is On

Idaho’s new wolf hunting season rules have finally been approved.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission adopted the rules on Thursday while meeting in Salmon. The final version only included a few tweaks to the original proposal drafted earlier this month.

This season will run from Aug. 30 until March 31, 2012. However, it will be extended in the Lolo and Selway zones until June 30 to coincide with black bear season. As originally suggested, the hunt will not include quotas except for areas near the Montana border.

This will be Idaho’s second wolf hunt since the animals were reintroduced to the state in 1995. The first ran from fall 2009 to spring 2010 with 188 of a limit of 220 wolves killed.

Also new this time: a trapping season will run from Nov. 15 until the end of the hunting season. The original proposal had suggested trapping should only be allowed for 10 weeks.

Kenny Anderson, the commissioner representing the Upper Snake River region, requested an increase to hunt limits in his region.

“I want more for my area, a better hunt and to take out more wolves,” he said during the commission meeting.

Wolf tag sales have lagged this year in comparison to tags sold during the first season. One reason being that hunting and killing wolves is much harder than hunters originally anticipated. Earlier this month, Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore estimated that only 1 percent of the 30,000 hunters who bought tags for the first season killed a wolf.

Idaho must maintain at least 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs to meet federal management criteria.

Moore promised the department would shut down the hunt if the wolf population approaches 150.