Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Time for a TurnaroundWell, my friends, things are finally looking up, and good timing, too, since I’m sure you’re all sick of me bitching. Recent bike build, including wheels… fun! In what feels like a fairly short time, I’ve come from sitting around … Continue reading → […]
- This Raised My PulseHey, baby… wanna ride? I may be injured, but I’m not dead yet. I can still have racy thoughts. Here’s more info. In other news, UBI was an awesome success! I had a blast. I highly recommend it. Overhaul day…. … Continue reading → […]
- Time for a Turnaround
- Edgy Veggie
Idaho talks wolf hunt
Gray wolf, AP file photo
Following the federal government’s announcement that gray wolves in Idaho and Montana would be removed from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, officials from both states said they planned to host wolf hunts this fall to cull the animals.
Now, Idaho has announced plans to reduce its wolf population to almost half its size:
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Department of Fish and Game commissioners may phase in state hunting quotas for wolves as part of efforts to reduce their numbers to 518, about half the estimated 1,000 predators now roaming the state.
Jim Unsworth, the agency’s deputy director, said Wednesday the population goal set a year ago remains “biologically and socially” responsible.
But he says reaching that level may take more than a single year. Wolf hunt quotas are due to be set at the Fish and Game Commission meeting Aug. 17 in Idaho Falls.Last month, wildlife officials in neighboring Montana voted to let hunters there shoot 75 wolves starting in mid-September.
Lawyers for environmental groups who have sued over the federal government’s May decision to delist wolves oppose such hunts, but are waiting to see how many wolves Idaho will allow to be shot before deciding whether to ask a U.S. District Court judge to halt them.
Wolves in Colorado — if there are any — would still be federally protected. Most people do no acknowledge any wolf population in Colorado, but every now and again rumors of a wolf in Colorado keep the mystery alive.
On Dec. 4, 2007, two volunteers spotted a large, black canine in Rocky Mountain National Park that may have been a wolf, but the sighting hasn’t been confirmed. The animal was seen in the Moraine Park area, and the track of a wolf or a wolf hybrid was found and recorded in that area soon after the sighting. That is not enough evidence to support the existence of wolves in the state. But even a mention of them has caused debate and discussion about an animal that now symbolizes more than a villain in a modern Colorado.
Read more of Camera reporter Zak Brown’s story here,
