Thoughts on Wolf Management

I'll admit that several years ago I didn't believe that gray wolves in the western states surrounding Yellowstone National Park were big problem.  Living in Wyoming, you mostly heard ranchers complaining about them.  The word on the street was those same ranchers were being reimbursed by the government for livestock that were supposedly killed by wolves.  So they could lose livestock for any reason, blame and on the wolves and collect a check, right?

Leo Larsen with his Montana wolf

Well, I don't know if that's how it really worked, but until recently I never gave much credit to the notion that wolves were a serious problem to livestock or big game populations.  The so-called "conservationists," which are really just liberal tree huggers (and liberals control the media) paint them as cuddly little critters and give you the idea that the packs are so small and controlled that they aren't doing any real damage.

How many elk and deer do you think it takes to feed this pack?

In areas of Wyoming that my dad hunts to this day, we've seen wolf sign and heard them howling late in the evening.  Now that's an interesting feeling out in the middle of nowhere, but we won't get into that.  Coincidentally, at the time we began seeing this sign, our sightings of deer and elk began to decrease.  2+2.

A wolf and a coyote for comparison

Hopefully Wyoming will beef up their wolf management plan before it is too late.  I'm not for slaughtering the wolves to near-extinction as was done in the past.  But it has been proven that hunting is an effective way to manage animal populations while maintaining the resource.  You can read a copy of Wyoming's current plan here: http://gf.state.wy.us/WolfManagement/index.asp

Very interesting read here on Montana's wolf management strategy.

http://www.rmef.org/NewsandMedia/NewsReleases/2011/ExtendSeason.htm

Another interesting read on the Big Game Forever Blog

http://biggameforever.org/blog/

Let me know your thoughts.

Adam