Wyoming may ask feds to pay $1.37 million 4 wolf-killed elk

[spectr17]

Lawmakers want cash for dead elk.

Associated Press

3/6/02

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - The House Travel Committee voted 9-1 in favor of a resolution asking the federal government to pay Wyoming $1.37 million for elk killed by wolves.

Wolves kill about 330 elk each year and cost the state money in hunting revenue, according to the resolution. Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995.

Rep. Louie Tomassi, R-Big Piney, said the state should get rid of the wolves.

"We didn't bring them here, we ought to shoot them here," he said Tuesday.

"Who's going to take us to court?" he asked.

The state's chief game warden, Jay Lawson, said federal authority overrides state authority to manage wolves, because the animals are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

He said wolves soon might be removed from the list of endangered species.

 

[paulc]

i like tomassi's style

 

[EricH]

Pretty sad attitude, if you ask me. Its amazing that the rabid anti-predator mentality is still so prevalent. Far more elk are killed indirectly by sheep, cattle and rampant development devouring elk habitat than by wolves. Its a miniscule price to pay for the chance to to hear a wolf's howl echoing off a mountainside.

 

[FTTPOW]

This will always be a hot topic. Everyone views competition differently, though. The wolves compete with the other predators for food and by placing themselves near the top of the food chain, they will claim the most notoriety by other predators including hunters. The game of the west is an important comodity to the people who's livelyhood depends on their numbers remaining stable. That would include ranchers, outfitters, motel, restaurant, filling station, sporting good operators, legislators and the rest of the states citizens that depend on hunters' dollars. If those numbers decline due to undue pressure by another competitor, everyone can suffer and more will complain. Lots of residents of the states surrounding Yellowstone National Park voiced their fears to the deaf ears of the Feds for just this reason, but the wiser minds of our government overruled. When wolves were released into the Yellowstone smorgasbord, they hit the moose first, since they were their natural prey before they were taken out of Canada. The Canadians are still laughing at us for buying wolves from them. They would have paid us to take them off their hands! The wolves have repopulated areas faster than even the wise Feds could have imagined. They probably will continue to until they reach the carrying capacity of the land. The wolves don't know the parks' boundaries. Even if they did, the game doesn't. The elk migrate out of the park where they can be hunted by man. When their numbers decline, the hunting will be altered if not stopped. Economies will suffer because of it. If the Bambi-ites of the world had it their way, they'd rather see game pulled down and eaten while still alive than see hunters harvest humanely. I'm in the anti-wolf camp. They were already there in small numbers before the reintroduction. What happened to the Parks' philosophy of leaving nature alone? It seems like selective intervention to me. Now we have to figure out how to deal with it. Again!      

 

[redfox18]

You cant please everybody,thats for sure

 

[paulc]

that is the attitude.. it is nice to hear the wolfs howl on the mountainside.. truth of the matter is the people that say that are not there, will not be going there and are not trying to make a living there.. the people that are there have been there for generations making a living on the land and they have done for the most part an excellent job of conserving the land.. the wolf is out of the picture and should stay that way.. the people that want it back do not live there and know nothing about the land except what they have picked up form disney movies and a slanted media..
coyotes, lions can be managed and they are managed by most ranches.. trouble makers are hunted down and shot.. there are now wolf packs in montana and wyoming that make their living off of domesticated animals..

sorry for going on and on, but, it drives me crazy when people get this "pollyanna" perception about how things are when they just dont have a clue and have been influenced by the same type of people as the biologists that  lied about the lynx in washington, or sierra club types that are funded by environmentalists that have spent almost zero time in the actual areas that they are influencing.
there are many other things to enjoy in the wild besides a wolfs howl.. these ranchers are barely hanging on in some cases and in many cases ranches in families for generations are being sold off to "cheap money" internet millionaires, ted turner types, movie star types and geuss where this is going... each will have their idea of how the land should be managed and geuss what, hunters may not be very high up on alot of their lists..
lets hope the balance of land ownership does not change alot in the future.  let wyoming manage their land not the federal government.

 

[FTTPOW]

paulc,  what you're saying is true. I'm not there. I've been there, I plan on going back there. and I understand the plight of those that are there. I wonder what EricH would think if wolves were introduced to his favorite deer hunting area in SE Ohio. That howl he would hear could be from the full belly of the wolve that just ate the buck he might have gotten next hunting season.

 

[idaho]

Right on. Let the locals decide what is best. I can hear wolves from our placd at Elk City, ID. I would much rather hear the bugling of an Elk, or the cow calling her calf than a howl of a wolf off the mountain side. We have got along real well for a long time without wolves and Grizzleys and don't need a bunch of easterners telling us we need them. Put them in their back yards and see how they like it.

 

[FTTPOW]

Idaho, I can't agree with you more. There's no one better to decide what's in their own backyard than those who live there. However not all easterners are pro-wolf. Anyone that enjoys what the West has to offer will have an opinion regardless. When will the officials stop trying to introduce one species to try to control another? Haven't they learned from past experience..English sparrows,carp and Asian Lady Beetles? I know that's small compared to wolves eating up your livelihood. There're lots of Easterners on your side on this one.

 

[idaho]

Sory FTTPOW,
  I just know at a lot of the people we call earth firsters came from the east coast. Most of them didn't have the foggiest idea what they are protesting. Most of them are funded right out of Moscow, and Pullman, WA. They tell them that we don't have any forest left which is not right. We have enough forests that if logging is done right and they replant we are not going to run out in fact we were growing more trees than they were cutting, and that was before they brought logging to almost a stand-still. The anti are not worried about whether we have wolves or bears but it is a way to stop hunting and get the people out of the forest. Not on my watch if I can help it.

 

[FTTPOW]

Idaho, I hunt about 400 mi from Yellowstone. There're wolf tracks in the mountains there too. The locals subsribe to the 3S'S. Shoot 'em, shovel 'em, and shutup! Sounds like their minds are made up.