'Part of having wolves is having to kill wolves'

The re-establishment of wolf populations in the Northern Rockies was a laudable wildlife goal, and programs to protect them as they came back were necessary. But notice our use of the past tense. Wolves are back, and now they need to be managed just like any other wild critter. Last we heard, at least 1,700 wolves roam the three-state ecosystem, roughly a third of them in Montana. That's a pretty healthy population, and it exceeds the targets of recovery plans. Among the tools wildlife officials have employed to manage them are hunting seasons and, in the case of livestock depredations, trapping and sometimes killing by the managers themselves. Unfortunately, one of those tools was removed by a federal judge who blocked the 2010 wolf season in Montana and Idaho. The officials now are looking at ways to put the hunts back in place. "You just have to accept that part of having wolves is having to kill wolves," said Mark Collinge, Idaho director of the federal Wildlife Service. "As the wolf populations increase, the depredations increase and the number of wolf removals will increase," he told a reporter recently. "It's very logical." The fact is, there's been plenty of wolf killing since the first 66 wolves were carted down to Yellowstone in the '90s. It's estimated that about 1,400 have been killed by wildlife agents and ranchers since the recovery effort began...more