Troubling news out of Idaho this week: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services is planning to send gunners in helicopters to start shooting wolves in the Lolo Elk Management Zone of the Clearwater National Forest.
The Idaho Legislature has also requested another $400,000 to kill wolves in the coming fiscal year.
"Idaho is making it clear that it has no intention to curb its attempts to decimate Idaho's wolf population."
Why is this important?
This will be the third year in a row that Wildlife Services has shot wolves from the air at the request of the Idaho Fish and Game Department. The stated goal of the wolf killing is to increase elk populations, although Idaho admits that elk populations in the Lolo Zone declined due to habitat changes well before wolves were reintroduced in Idaho. In February 2014 Wildlife Services killed 23 wolves in the Lolo Zone from a helicopter, and in February 2015 the agency killed 19 wolves. During the last five years, six other agency wolf-control actions in the Lolo Zone removed an additional 48 wolves.
