Rather-be-hunting, I agree with you that wolves need to be managed. I really wanted to illustrate with this post a thing called "mass hysteria". My two stories illustrate it, and a general cruise of responses to my thread really highlights it. Unfortunately, these slobbering attitudes cost us in the real world with nonhunters.

One guy can't talk down a screaming horde, but a couple points. If the horror stories were representative of the general reality, then obviously the last game animal would have been extinct centuries before Columbus ever came onto the continent. Study and you'll find that the Indians, who relied on game meat, killed probably more animals nationwide than modern hunters do, and also let wolves have the run of the place. Yet, miraculously we still have game today.

A major case in point is the way elk and wolves are being reported here in Montana. I just saw a guy on another post saying don't bother to come to MT because the wolves have ruined the elk hunting. This opinion is just so wildly off the mark I'm still shaking my head.

The hunting media is feeding the hysteria. I recently read an article on elk in Montana in Rocky Mountain Hunting & Fishing News. It's entire theme was that wolves are ruining the elk hunt, and their case in point was the Gardiner hunt, where cow tags have been eliminated. Think about it, in a state like MT, you're bound to find a place where elk are down, wolves or not. In fact, any objective report on elk in MT should be glowing, because these are the good old days. Even that article had to eventually admit elk were booming all over, but they made the claim that this was only true in areas without wolves. Again, it's poppycock, one of the areas they tout is the Bitterroot (my home range), but they seem unaware that we have wolves coming out our ears. Yet, we have elk numbers 20% over objectives and calf:cow ratios of 35 to 45;100. Statewide, elk numbers are booming in probably 90% of the elk range, including areas in the wolf recovery area.

The biggest problem we face right now in MT is the danger that ranchers get tired of elk knocking over their fences and raiding their haystacks, and demand reductions in elk numbers. They have already begun trying to alter our statewide management plans to limit elk numbers to what public land can support, and that is a scary thought.