Wolf Hell! Judge Says Idaho Can Continue Wolf Slaying In Frank Church….

January 18, 2014

Idaho is wolf hell and the fires are burning hotter than ever for them now that a district judge has refused to stop the extermination of two wolf packs (Monumental and Golden) in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, after environmental groups filed a lawsuit to halt it. The wolf packs are bothering nobody, they live in a  2.4 million acre wilderness for god-sakes. BUT some elk hunters, who think Idaho is a giant game farm, want more elk to kill for themselves, hence the pressure on IDGF to eradicate even more wolves.  Who do these people think they are? Do they own Idaho’s wildlife? Apparently they do!!

And I highly doubt the Idaho hired gun or guns is just going after two wolf packs. Who in the heck really knows whats going on in that vast wilderness? They could be killing or have already killed wolves from other packs.

Judge Edward J. Lodge’s ruling allows the outrageous trapping and killing of wolves, by a state hired hunter/trapper, to continue. It’s bad enough Idaho allows a year round wolf hunt in some areas of the state or that Wildlife Services and poachers continue to kill them. Now wolves are being trapped and slaughtered in a protected wilderness.

“Hiring a bounty hunter to kill wolves in one of America’s crown-jewel wilderness areas, just to make sure there are more elk for hunters to kill, is one more example of the deeply sad, cruel and reactionary nature of Idaho’s ‘management’ of wolves,” said Noah Greenwald, the Center’s endangered species director. “This outrageous slaughter is a clear reminder of why all of our country’s wolves need the protection of the Endangered Species Act.”……Center For Biological Diversity

We can lay this debacle at the feet of the Obama administration and Congress. Mere months after Obama took office he and his rancher Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, delisted wolves in Montana and Idaho. Those wolves have been in the cross-hairs of brutal state management ever since and the bloodshed has spread to Wyoming and the Great Lakes.

The environmental groups plan to appeal the ruling to the 9th Circuit but that could be a lengthy process, meanwhile wolves continue to suffer and die. The only solution to the savage wolf killing, that’s gripped the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes, is to place gray wolves back on the Endangered Species List!

===

Judge Lodge Issues Ruling Allowing Wolf Extermination in Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness

By Ken Cole On January 17, 2014 · 54 Comments · In Idaho Wolves, Predator Control, Western Watersheds Project, Wilderness/Roadless

U.S. District Judge for Idaho Edward J. Lodge has issued a ruling denying plaintiffs’ case against an ongoing plan to eradicate two wolf packs in Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. The judge ruled that plaintiffs are unlikely to prevail based on the merits of the case because the US Forest Service’s decision to allow Idaho Department of Fish and Game to use the cabin and airstrip at Cabin Creek was not a final agency action that is reviewable. The US Forest Service claims that it is still evaluating the wolf eradication plan and that it has not taken a final agency action. The Judge also ruled that the removal of wolves in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness does not constitute irreparable harm because the actions don’t irreparably harm the species as a whole.

So far the trapper has killed 9 wolves.

Read more: http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2014/01/17/judge-lodge-issues-ruling-allowing-wolf-extermination-in-frank-church-river-of-no-return-wilderness/

===

Definition of Wilderness (from the 1964 Wilderness Act)

(c) an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which(1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has  at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.

===

Posted in: Wolf Wars

Photo: Wisconsin DNR

Tags: wolf wars, wolf trapping, wolf persecution, Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, WWP, Ralph Maughan, DOW, WWP, CBD, Wilderness Watch, Wilderness Act, Judge Lodge, Idaho, Idaho elk hunters pressure IDFG, 1964 Wilderness Act

Remembering Environmental Icon Stewart Udall

JFK and Stewart Udall

Over the long haul of life on this planet, it is the ecologists, and not the bookkeepers of business, who are the ultimate accountants…Stewart Udall

 An environmental icon has died. 

Fish Creek Moutains Wilderness, California

Stewart Udall, who was Secretary of the Interior during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson administrations, passed away in his home yesterday in Sante Fe, New Mexico. 

Stewart Udall was a hero of mine. He helped pass the Wilderness Act, a monumental piece of legislation that states:

“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Idaho is trampling on that act by landing helicopters in  the Frank Church/Wilderness of No Return to harass and collar wolves. 

Stewart Udall was a great American. These are just some of his accomplishments:

From Wiki:

“Udall was largely responsible for the enactment of environmental laws in Johnson’s Great Society, legislative agenda, including the Clear Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts and Amendments, The Wilderness Act of 1964,  The Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 ( which was the predecessor of The Endangered Species Act of 1973, The Land and Water Conservation [Fund] Act of 1965, The Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965, the National Trail System Act of 1968, and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968.”

The Wave, Coyotte Buttes North, Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona

If only we had leaders like Stewart Udall today. It was because of Udall and other dedicated Americans, that the wolf was able to make a comeback in the Western US, shielded by ESA from the hate and persecution that caused their extermination the first time around. 

Now the gray wolves existence is threatened because the Obama administration has stripped them of their ESA protections.  I wonder what Stewart Udall thought of that decision? I think we know the answer. He could have given our current Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, lessons on protecting our national treasures instead of catering to the livestock industry.

===========

Conservation Icon Stewart Udall Dies

Posted: 20 Mar 2010 02:01 PM PDT

Glacier National Park

Stewart Udall, a Western political and conservation icon who served as Interior secretary for presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, died Saturday morning at his home at age 90.

Udall was a member of a family of influential Western Democrats. His brother Morris Udall was a congressman and one-time presidential contender. His son Tom is a New Mexico Senator. His nephew Mark is a Colorado Senator. My Uncle Stewart was a great public servant, and a wonderful writer and storyteller, Mark Udall said in a statement. He was passionate about conservation, and he was a champion of Native peoples. All those who care about our national parks and the environment will miss his voice. Read the rest of the article:

Steens Mountain, Oregon

“We Have I Fear, Confused Power With Greatness” 

Steward Udall

=======

Stewart Udall, Lion of the American West, Dead at 90

http://sfreporter.com/stories/stewart_udall_lion_of_the_american_west_dead_at_90/5446/

=======

Wilderness Photos: Wikimedia Commons

Wolf photo: www.wallpaper.searchrealm.com

Posted in: Environmental Icons

Tags: Stewart Udall, Iconic Secretary of the Interior, wilderness act, endangered species act, clean air and water, national trail system, wild and scenic rivers

Scapegoating Wolves

Scapegoating: “Process in which the mechanisms of projection or displacement are utilised in focusing feelings of aggression, hostility, frustration, etc., upon another individual or group(wolves); the amount ofblame being unwarranted.”

Wolf haters never seem to take the day off.  They are busy as can be hating wolves and trying to make sure wolves pay.  As wolf advocates await Judge Molloy’s decision on restoring wolves ESA protections, we watch in disbelief at what is happening to wolves.  The Idaho state legislature passed a resolutionasking the Governor to declare a state of emergency in Idaho because among other things, wolves could become a threat to people, especially children. I’m not kidding.

Wolf attacks on humans are exceedingly rare. The wolf is the least dangerous of large carnivores of the same size and weight. They are extremly shy and fearful of  humans and with good reason.  Any wild wolf would  rather be a hundred miles away from people.

I hate to break it to the resolution makers in the Idaho State Legislature but domestic dogs are a bigger threat to people and children  then wolves will ever be and I’m a dog lover but facts are facts.

Dog attacks are attacks on humans by feral or domestic dogs. With the close association of dogs and humans in daily life (largely as pets), dog attacks—with injuries from usually very minor to significant, and very occasionally severe to fatal—are not uncommon. Attacks on the serious end of the spectrum have become the focus of increasing media and public attention in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It is estimated that two percent of the US population, 4.7 million people, are bitten each year.In the 1980s and 1990s the US averaged 17 fatalities per year, while in the 2000s this has increased to 26. 77% of dog bites are from the pet of family or friends, and 50% of attacks occur on the dog owner’s property.

Are we going to be issuing edicts to lock up all the children because dogs are a threat to them?  I’m kidding of course but does anyone see how hysterical the rhetoric has gotten?  It’s like a badly written fairy tale.

Next we have US District Court Judge Winmill giving the green light to IDFG so they can land helicopters in the Frank Church Wilderness to collar wolves.

Let’s throw The Wilderness Act out the window because IDFG needs to gather more information about wolves.  The Wilderness Act states:

“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Wolf collaring is such a priority in the Frank Church. Uh-huh.  The one place wild enough where wolves can actually get away from people. We can’t have that. They must be perpetually harassed and tracked and of course collar GPS signals are used to locate wolves for “control actions”, IE. killing them. All so necessary.

Once again, another example of state game agencies doing the bidding of the rancher barons, who refuse to be pro-active protecting  their livestock.  Instead it’s much easier to call Montana FWP or IDFG to come and kill the wolves.

So who is looking out for wolves interest in state government? I’m hearing crickets. It’s the same scenerio that got wolves exterminated the last time around. The ranchers hated them and wanted them gone, so the feds went out and poisoned, trapped and shot all the wolves. Now the same climate of hate is rearing it’s head again.

Wolves are the ultimate scapegoats for people who apparently are unhappy with their lives. Sometimes angry people will kick their dogs if they’re mad at the world, or yell out their car windows in fits of road rage if someone cuts them off?  Well instead of kicking the dog, they can kill the wolf, or kick the wolf, or curse the wolf. or blame the wolf. or damn the wolf, or persecute the wolf.  It must be nice to have the wolf to kick around, since they have no voice, it’s so easy.

It’s the same mantra repeated over and over again.  The wolves are eating all the cattle, the wolves are killing all the elk when this is patently untrue. 

Wolves, large grazing animals, and beaver have successfully lived side by side for thousands of years. It is only when the first Europeans arrived in North America that this balanced co-existence changed. When prey species drop in number because of food availability or weather conditions, wolf numbers drop as well. Wolves have smaller litters or may even starve to death.

But people can repeat anything they want and call it truth. By changing the subject and constantly talking about livestock and elk it takes the focus off wolves and what’s best for them.

I for one am sick of the whining, the lies and biased media reports about wolves. And they call wolf advocates emotional.  Please.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Posted in: gray wolf/canis lupus, howling for justice, Wolf Wars

Tags: wolves in the crossfire, Wilderness Act, Frank Church Wilderness