I got this picture off another website, its the best picture of a pack of wolves that I ever seen!!!!

made it bigger

the Governor of Montana was on a TV show yesterday commenting on this subject. the Feds had promised all the states where the wolf was reintroduced that once the numbers reached 150 animals, they would be taken off the endangered list. then the states would be able to control the numbers. needless to say Montana now has 600 wolves and the Feds refuse to take them off of the endangered list. Montana is doing everything possible within the law to control them.where the wolves are destroying livestock and pets, the wolves are being destroyed.the Governor would like to see them controlled by hunting to keep the numbers in check.that cannot be done until the feds keep there original promise and remove them from the endangered list, which doesn't seem likely anytime soon.another example of our ignorant federal officials not following through on there promises. Ray

Defying federal authority over gray wolves, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Wednesday encouraged ranchers to kill wolves that prey on their livestock and said the state will start shooting packs that hurt elk herds.

whole article here

http://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/pre...problem-wolves

watch this then tell me the wolves are fine!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYxGJB5dJxI

Had no idea it was that bad. 60 million plus stolen from fish and game funds that could have been used to control wolves. The amazing part was the elk herds went from 17,000 to under 5,000 in a few years. Here in Missouri our deer herds were extinct in the 40s and through hard efforts of the DNR we now have over 2 million deer in the state with many open seasons. The state brought them back not the federal government. How can a person who sits in Washington really know what is going on in other states. They can't and will never know. The power has got to be given the states and allowing them to control the seasons for hunting and non-hunting etc. If the state is doing something wrong they will know about it when hunters and fishermen stop buying tags and voice their concerns. Just letting ranchers kill wolves that are attacking their livestock does not even make a dent in the wolf population. Open seasons are what will get it done and bring back other species in the process. I am not saying eliminate the wolf totally but bring back into a check where the elk, deer, etc can out produce the wolve and flourish. I had a chance to hunt elk up north and the guide said honestly that it had gotten bad to a point where they would go a few days without seeing them and mentioned wolves were out of hand. I could not beleive it but he was being honest and I so greatly appreciated that. Here in MO we are receiving transplanted elk thanks to folks who are so pasionate about restoring elk. In a few years they will offer hunting permits for elk and I cannot wait, but I cannot imagine that there may be no elk in states that owned the highest percentages of elk herds.

Despite Montana Governor's Claims, No Big Wolf Kills Planned
2/21/2011


Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer turned heads when he announced he was sending out state wildlife agents to kill packs of endangered wolves any time they attack livestock or drive down elk numbers.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer turned heads when he announced he was sending out state wildlife agents to kill packs of endangered wolves any time they attack livestock or drive down elk numbers.

Yet there's been no immediate change in how the state deals with problem wolves, and Schweitzer's office on Friday backed away from some of his most adamant declarations of defiance against federal wolf protections.

Schweitzer declared in an interview this week that his state would "take action'' on its own to remove wolf packs that have caused declines in elk herds along its western border with Idaho.

On Friday, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said the agency was awaiting a response from federal officials on a pending state petition to kill those wolves, in an area known as the Bitterroot Valley. A decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is due within six weeks.

Schweitzer this week also notified U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that he had directed wildlife officials to shoot "whole packs that kill livestock, wherever this may occur.''

That directive was revised Friday to reflect less-severe policies already in place for the state's more than 500 wolves.

Projections made last year by wildlife officials showed that killing off all packs that attack cattle, sheep or other livestock would have quickly reduced wolf numbers below sustainable levels.

The governor's natural resources adviser, Mike Volesky, told The Associated Press that wildlife agents had "discretion to use whole-pack removal'' — not a mandate to do so.

``The letter probably dealt with the issue inartfully,'' Volesky wrote in an e-mail response. "It's usually better to leave some discretion to the experts on the ground, who can then react to specific circumstances.''

Roughly one out of every three packs will kill livestock in any given year. If every livestock-killing pack was eliminated, within four years the number of breeding packs would be reduced by half, to just 14, according to the state's projections. That is below the level considered necessary for Montana's wolf population to remain viable over the long-term.

Although the state has authority to take out problem packs — and did so nine times in 2009, the most recent year for which data was available — its longstanding practice has been to try other methods first in most instances. That includes non-lethal measures and shooting wolves from attacking packs one at a time until the problem stops.

More than 600 wolves have been killed in Montana since the animals were reintroduced to the Northern Rockies by the federal government in the mid-1990s. Most were shot by government wildlife agents in response to livestock attacks.

"The idea is to address the depredation problems and still maintain a recovered wolf population, which we are committed to doing,'' Aasheim said.

Schweitzer's show of defiance was welcomed by some in Montana, where ranchers and hunters have grown increasingly frustrated with federal restrictions against public wolf hunts.

But they were rejected by the Interior Department as taking the wrong approach and generated alarm among wildlife advocates.

The governor also encouraged ranchers in northern Montana to shoot wolves that harass their livestock — currently prohibited north of Interstate 90 — and said state game wardens would no longer investigate wolf killings in that part of the state.

"It sends the wrong signal to would-be wolf poachers that they could say they are protecting livestock and eliminating wolves,'' said Michael Leahy with Defenders of Wildlife.

Wolf poaching laws still will be enforceable by federal wildlife agents.

Lawsuits brought by advocacy groups including Leahy's have kept gray wolves in the Northern Rockies on the endangered list for a decade since the animals exceeded the government's original recovery goals.

There are now at least 1,700 wolves in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington and Oregon — more than five times the goal to maintain at least 300 in the region.

Public hunting for wolves has been banned since they were listed as endangered in 1974, except for a brief period when they came off the list in Idaho and Montana in 2009.

Sounds like you are on a mission dude.

http://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/pre...th-gps-collars

They don't get it. As a hunter. I don't want to hunt wolves. Unless they want to put a good bounty on them. I want to hunt deer and elk.

Why they think the hunters are going to clean up their mess is beyond me. I hunt for meat. I have no interest in eating wolf meat.

Hunters can't control coyotes. I don't see wolves being any different.