In late March, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials conducted their
statewide ?wolf tour? public roundtables. I was one of 170 people in
Kalispell who gave FWP an earful on the plan -- all 80 something pages plus
appendices. For a plan spawned by the political shenanigans of
multimillion-dollar enviro groups, helped by the draconian Endangered Species
Act, FWP?s proposal looks pretty good. In a nutshell, if the number of
breeding wolf packs in Montana stay above a certain ?trigger? number -- in
this case a biologically-conservative 15 -- ranchers will be able to protect
their livestock, and Montana hunters and trappers will get a furbearer season.
That may be very soon, as FWP wolf plan leader Carolyn Sime states that Montana
already has 17 to 18 packs with breeding alpha wolf pairs. The big question on everyone?s mind is -- who will pay for wolf management?
Should hunters pay? No way. When the Babbitt wolves were dropped into
Yellowstone, biologists said they expected elk herds to decrease by fifty
percent thanks to wolf predation. Today, cow-calf ratios north of the Park at 12
to 14 per 100, versus a norm of 33, and with each wolf eating an average of one
elk apiece every two weeks during the winter (Wyoming claims 330 elk a year
killed), well, there?s your decrease. Never mind the reality that when healthy
game populations face a bad winter, so do predators, which scarf up everything
in sight that first winter. Then, after the big game is eaten out, the only food
left is, you guessed it, domestic livestock and pets. Sorry, but forcing hunters
to fiscally support animals that compete for a resource hunters have -- for
decades -- paid to enhance, would be a travesty. Should it be Montanans at large, i.e. state general fund dollars? No. The
fact of the matter is that most Montanans never wanted wolves returned in the
first place, and still don?t. When the first Canadian wolves came down into
the North Fork Flathead basin in 1979 and 1980, well, I think we all could have
gotten used to the idea, slowly and naturally. As late as 1996, Scott Wiley of
the Lost Trail Ranch in Marion told reporter William Kronholm: ?If the wolves
come in here naturally, it?s nobody?s fault.? But the forced introductions
of the mid 1990s -- to epic political fanfare directed toward voters in New York
and Los Angeles -- were certainly somebody?s fault. How about the federal government? Sure, it was a stupid federal law that
forced Montana, Wyoming and Idaho into this situation, and a federal political
appointee (Bruce Babbitt) who gave the go-ahead, but those federal payments will
just be another strings-attached political football for urban politicians to
kick around. So who is left? Who really should finance state efforts to manage wolves?
Defenders of Wildlife, of course. After all, in its many press releases hailing
compensation paid to livestock producers, Defenders unfailingly claims that it
?spearheaded efforts to restore wolves? and brags that when Judge Downes
ruled that wolves could be reintroduced in Yellowstone, he ?praised Defenders
for ?putting its money where its mouth is.?? Well, from 1987 To September
2000, Defenders paid out $138,474.77, a palty annual average of $10,651 -- which
is less than Defenders president Rodger Schlickeisen?s monthly salary.
Compensation isn?t even a line item in Defenders? budget ($16 million in
2000). The fund is not supported by Defenders membership dues, either, but
instead is ?financed by private donors? such as Liz and Art Ortenberg, aka
Liz Claiborne. But that compensation program enables Defenders to abuse wolves
as a fundraising foil (their vice president has a sign in his office saying
?It?s the wolves, stupid?), hog the credit for bringing wolves back, and
endlessly scream about wolves in its fundraising letters -- would you believe
?wolf? or ?wolves? 47 times in a two-page letter? By comparison, taxpayers have spent $1.2 million a year on wolves just in the
Northern Rockies -- and Defenders is, um, tax-exempt. Judge Downes was
right...Defenders certainly does put its money where its mouth is. But I have to
wonder when Defenders will finally put its money where it should -- where the
wolves are.
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Freelance writer and hunter Dave Skinner writes about natural resource issues
from Whitefish, Montana -- wolf country. |
