January 28, 2014
By Kimberlee Kruesi –
BOISE • Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s proposed $2 million fund to kill as many as 500 wolves barely passed its preliminary vetting Monday by the House Resources and Conservation Committee.
Committee members quizzed sponsors state Sen. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, and Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, on the effectiveness of creating a separate fund — which would come with a five-member oversight board — when the state already funds a predator damage board.
Bracket and Gibbs responded that the proposed expense would keep the focus on wolves instead of splitting resources on the state’s Animal Damage Control Board.
Federal support to control wolves will stop in 2016, Brackett said. In Fiscal Year 2013, the federal government provided $650,000 of the state’s $1.4 million wolf management budget.
If the bill passes, the $2 million would be a one-time appropriation with the livestock industry and hunting license fees contributing $110,000 each year.
“The priority of this whole effort is to keep the wolves delisted,” Brackett said.
Idaho’s wolves were taken off the endangered species list in 2011. Today, the state’s wolf population is estimated to be around 680 animals, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. If it falls below 150, the species will be once more classified as endangered by federal regulators.
The committee repeatedly questioned the need for two boards dedicated to killing predator animals that cause damage to livestock or Idaho’s elk population.
“How is this a more cost-effective approach to start a new board than to put a little more money into Idaho Fish and Game?” asked state Rep. Illan Rubel, D-Boise.
Gibbs countered that a separate board allows the state to be flexible.
The new wolf fund would not pay for livestock killed by wolves but to kill wolves that cause damage, Gibbs said.
“There are no new ways to control wolves being projected or being created by this bill,” Gibbs said. “They are simply subject to the tools we have today, which is sport hunting, trapping and aerial gunning.”
The committee voted 9-8 to move the legislation forward, with the chairman initially declaring the bill failed before Gibbs speaking out he hadn’t voted and provided the “yes” needed for the bill to be printed.
This is the second consecutive year lawmakers have tried to secure funding dedicated wolf control. Last year, Otter vetoed a bill that would have diverted money from Fish and Game to a wolf management fund. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, who voted against Brackett’s and Gibbs’ proposal.
Boyle said committee recommendations from the summer of 2013 supported added money to the Animal Damage Control Board for wolf damage.
“I feel like this is a breach of contract of what was promised in that committee,” she said.
Brackett said that while a committee may have submitted recommendations, their bill was based on what the governor wanted.
Idaho’s wolf control management strategies have received criticisms recently after Fish and Game hired a trapper for the first time to kill two packs in the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.
Wolf activists also spoke out against Idaho’s elk management plan during a recent public hearing updating the document.
Exposing the Big Game 
Getting really, really fed up with Idaho.
It’s like they want to piss us off or something.
Again, it’s all about the Livestock Industry, which rules the political scene. The burden is always on the wildlife, not this industry. Why is this industry still grazing livestock on the public lands which should be a refuge for remaining wildlife?
Actually it’s all just about killing and supporting the gun industry, I think.
The NRA is influencing hunters, ranchers and the elk hunting community.
It is a fervor not seen since manifest destiny, when they had their rifles killing Indians.
They feel powerful with their eradication programs employing their guns that nobody is going to take away from them…. ! I have never seen such a rabid group, but eerily it reminds one of the reaction NRA had to the Sandy Hook killings and how the NRA was able to avert a national call for background checks. In fact, 92% of Americans wanted background checks
This call for further wolf killing has a macabre disturbing element,
If they kill 500 wolves they will have eradicated them in their state. Yet according to the Public Trust Doctrine
these wolves belong to all of us, not just the NRA henchman, the ” butcher” of Idaho
They are not giving an inch on their guns and the killing of an iconic animal that 78% of Americans want to save, the gray wolf.
We seem so far now from the ESA letter of the law meant to protect these wolves. And we hear dept of interior is going to further delist, so it seems their hatred has infiltrated the very depts meant to protect our endangered ones. It feels like something has gone seriously awry in our country.
No one has a spine left to stand up to the gun mentality in our country .
How did all this happen?
I agree with your comments about the NRA. Do not underestimate the influence of the fake sportsmen in SCI and their role in influencing legislation through the Congressional Fake Sportsmen Foundation and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus which includes half of Congress(70% Republican and 30% Democrat)
Reblogged this on Wolf Is My Soul.