Colville tribe hunting wolves to protect deer, elk, chairman says

After eight months of deliberation, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation decided earlier this month to open a hunt on wolves living within the boundaries of its reservation, John Sirois, chairman of the Colville Business Council said in a telephone interview Friday. The tribe made the decision after surveying its membership, and discerning through the work of its biologists that the wolves on its reservation are denting the local population of deer and elk, which tribal members hunt for subsistence. The tribe elected to allow a wolf hunt in order protect the tribe's food supply, Sirois said. The tribe's decision to allow a hunt has also been hot. "Oh man, it is blowing up," Sirios said. "I have a lot of hateful messages from people, it's 'Why are you killing your brother.' The decision wasn't made easily, there was a lot of debate. But in terms of feeding our people, this is one we had to make." The Colville's reservation is a sprawling expanse of largely open country, in northcentral Washington. The tribe successfully trapped and collared several wolves last summer, Sirois said, part of its work to monitor the wolves within the tribe's borders. At least two packs are believed to roam the rez. Collared animals may not be legally hunted. Hunting with tribal permits on the Colville reservation is only open to tribal members. Wolves are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act west of SR 97, but east of it, on the tribe's reservation, they are not. The tribe also has authority to set its own hunting regulations for tribal members on its lands. The season runs until the end of February...more