Sad happening in Idaho!!

[royinidaho]

Fabs said "At the end of the day, I think everybody on here will support the hunting/management of wolves, so long as it is not meant to put the wolf population in endangerment again. "

Roy says, There will be at least one who won't support..... but would if reextinction were the goal. Not to mention all of the Idaho cattle associations.

[PJgunner]

I would be inclined to think something to keep them in check would come about once they started attacking or killing people.
Then again, i wouldn't hold my breath on thet either. You can't hunt Mountain Lions in California and a few of them have already killed people.
Still can't hunt lions in california.
Paul B.

[BILLY D.]

Originally posted by royinidaho
Fabs said "At the end of the day, I think everybody on here will support the hunting/management of wolves, so long as it is not meant to put the wolf population in endangerment again. "

Roy says, There will be at least one who won't support..... but would if reextinction were the goal. Not to mention all of the Idaho cattle associations.

we got along for years without them, why do we need? them now.

the fish and game departments are going to suffer when the hunting revenues drop. also the tourism dollars the hunter bring to the state will drop.

[Slim-Zippy]

When an animal has no monetary value it usually becomes extinct. When wolves have decimated the herds of elk, deer, and antelope, then people will understand that the money for conservation resources came from hunters not tree huggers. There will not be enough herd animals to hunt and no licenses to sell, then no money for conservation. Ranchers and farmers will not be able to SSS fast enough to keep the wolf population in control and will eventually use poison or some other remedy to survive whether it is legal or not. Hunting leases have become part of the income on many farms and ranches. The wolf populations have already far exceeded what the Gov. biologists have dedided that the habitat can sustain in many states. In many areas the number of wolves is under estimated and unknown. The wolf is just too good a predator to unleash in such great quantities without some controls in place. There is no natural predator of wolves that I know of except man and he is not being allowed to control the situation in an intelligent manner.

[fabsroman]

Roy,

To say that you would not support a hunting season on wolves UNLESS it was made with the extent to put them into extinction seems rather bull headed if you ask me. Any type of hunting season is better than nothing to start with.

As far as an animal being driven into extinction because they have no monetary value, I think that is a bunch of crap too. We have plenty of animals around that are not worth anything. However, in the ecological system, almost every animal has its purpose. The problem is that man has screwed this up.

I am willing to bet that some of the same people complaining about the wolf are the ones complaining that there isn't enough places to hunt. Both problems are man made.

I am no bunny lover or tree hugger, but I find it to be pretty pathetic when we are willing to lose a species over money or greed. Leave it to man and there will eventually be nothing but men on this world. If there weren't any limits on killing big game and waterfowl, I am willing to bet that there wouldn't be much big game or waterfowl left. I have read a story of a group of hunters finding an elk herd and killing 100+ animals. Read another story about 100+ geese and ducks being thrown in a ditch on the side of the road. Heard another story from a friend of mine about an oyster bed that he found in the Chesapeake Bay, which are nearly non-existant. He told a friend, who told another friend, etc. The entire bed was cleaned out by the end of the weekend.

Men are greedy. Probably more so than wolves. We want everything and we don't want to share anything. We want our nice big houses and our nice big yards. However, we also want plenty of land to hunt on and we want to be able to show our children the great wide open places. Well, we cannot have everything if we keep going the way we are. We need to learn to compromise. The bunny huggers and wolf huggers need to learn that wolves need to be controlled. Likewise, the bull headed hunters and cattle ranchers need to learn that we do not need to exterminate/eradicate the wolf species entirely. Maybe leave them in Yellowstome, or set up some areas where they are allowed to live, but other areas where they can be shot on sight.

Come on guys, lets come up with realistic solutions instead of statements like "All wolves need to be protected" or "All wolves must be killed."

[Slim-Zippy]

Fabs,

My point is that if the monetary value of the herd animals is lost to wolf predation, then hunting won't survive and neither will the wolf. There has to be an intelligent balance.

You are correct. Man is just an animal that is greedy and can be self destructive. I just believe the balance is ,as far as the ecology of the wolf, is being decided in federal courts by groups that don't truly understand the long term consequences of their actions. The greenies are probably being manupulated by the anti-gun people to a certain extent. Even the state biologists are being ignored by the courts. The manipulation of the courts is what will be the end of any common- sense balanced biological approach to the situation.

[petey]

The wolves will kill themselves after they've eaten everything there is to eat. They'll just die of starvation! From what I'm reading in my BUGLE, the last 3 issues have been nothing but this big wolf controversy, Yellowstone is lost.

For those of you that didn't get to see it prior to 4 years ago, I pity you. You'll get to see all the natural wonders, but the big game herds are decimated in that area (mainly elk). The Feds want you to believe it's hard winters? Come-on, even and Easterner can put 2 and 2 together. Take a herd that's cut almost to a 4th of what it was in 5 years and the only thing that changed was the wolf??? DUH!!

Those of you arguing the pros of the Canadian Grey wolf back here in the East are only going off of what you read, more than likely what some Fed wrote as fallacy. You aren't living there and actually seeing what's happening. It's destroyed the actual living of many (outfitters in the Yellowstone area) who have closed doors due to no animals and lack of business and will destroy the small towns of the west during hunting season. Not only outfitters but ranchers also. For those of you that don't live there, or haven't lived there, or have never been there..how can you argue your point? These towns and areas thrive and survive off of the income that comes in during hunting season. You can only see that by being there during these times of the year. Those of you that say, well they don't have to be Outfitters and charge all of that money to hunt....you forget (or you never knew) hunting IS their way of life. Us non-residents are their paycheck and it's seasonal. If you've never been there..you just don't know...you just don't know. Take a look at the post Rocky made in the Varmint section with a picture of the local post office. Maybe that'll bring a little light into the subject. The only thing to live off of is the land and what is there. It's not like here in the east where you drive 10 mins to the local Walmart and buy any/everything you need.

Me, yeah I've lived there and I've been hunting there for over 15 years so I've seen the changes that have occured. Man is greedy and it shows in the increase of cost of license over the years. It's becoming a rich man's sport to hunt elk and other big game in the West. I've have 2 encounters with wolves in Yellowstone, both pleasant. The supporters of the RMEF including myself are real worried about what these wolves are doing. Just like this article states, I believe big game hunting may be lost in my lifetime. Hard to imagine only 4-5 yrs can do that..but when you INTRODUCE (notice I didn't say reintroduce since you can't reintroduce something that wasn't there in the first place) an ultimate predator like the Canadian grey with no holds bar on it she'll act like an Amish family fishing a farm pond...Stay until it's fished clean, then move onto the next pond. You're already seeing where the wolf is moving on to the next "pond". I sure wish you locals well and hope it all turns out but I'm afraid the battle is already lost on this one.

It will be impossible to get rid of them now, or even "manage" them....choose your PC term, but your area is screwed and unfortunately one of the, if not THE largest herd of that infamous big game animal that beckons me to drive West each and every year. I hang my head in shame for not voicing my opinion before this all happened.

[M.T. Pockets]

Petey,

This last weekend I was re-reading some of my Bugle magazines too. A lot of information on wolves over the past years.

I do have a problem with the RMEF though, they took a wishy washy position at first and now that the wolves have taken hold and are maybe leaning a little towards wolf management. I know more than a few RMEF members here in Minnesota that dropped their membership when RMEF didn't voice any opposition to the introduction of the Canadien wolves into Yellowstone ecosystem.

I'm packing into the Thorofare 3 months from tomorrow and will be hunting the SE border of Yellowstone for a week. I expect to see Grizz and I won't be surprised to see wolves, I know that there are areas in the Yellowstone ecosystem that have been hit extremely hard to the point that Outfitters are out of business. I know the Thorofare area where I'm going doesn't have a moose season this year.

[royinidaho]

Fabs,

Not quite bull headed. Just don't or didn't fully understand your comment regarding a hunting season.

When I joined the Navy to see the world and was stationed in southeast Idaho for just about 4 years I died and tho't I went to heaven. BTW before that I spent my life in western PA, Butler county.

The "western" culture really impressed me. The people were/are severly independent and will stand on their own two feet when their back is against the wall.

A western cattleman is way more bone headed than I could ever be. But I respect their culture. They have a tough life.

The natives to the area, those whose forefathers settled the area generations ago can tell you who shot the last wolf shot in Bingham county. They really didn't get 'em all, however. But the ones left were never a bother and the coexisted quite well with hunters/sportsman/tourists and cattlemen.

The statue quo just wasn't good enough for the feds/whoever.....

Now 'we' have a major imbalance in the system and it will take some sorting.

Actually in my area there are more cattle lost to low llife humans than to wolves. But the elk numbers are definitely down, way down.

M.T. Pockets - It would be fun to see some wolves. I wonder what goes through your mind as you observe them under the conditions of your hunt.

BUT, keep in mind that the griz has/have learned to "follow the shot". Really. Those things are pretty darn smart and have learned over the years.

I recommend that you down the elk at the top of a sage hill with good visibility all the way around.

I think that all of us sitting around the same table could pretty much come to an agreement/understanding ergarding the woofs.

[M.T. Pockets]

Roy, I've seen wolves while hunting in Minnesota, Alaska and Wyoming. It was neat in Minnesota because they're native and part of the landscape (there are too many, but that's another topic). In Alaska it was downright exciting because I dropped $30 on a wolf tag before I flew out to camp and for about 10 minutes I was a bona fide wolf hunter. He gave me the slip.

In Wyoming it wasn't a good feeling at all, it looked out of it's element. That was in Sept. 2000 so it could have been one of the original transplants from Canada. If it had been one of the original native wolves, or a grizz, or a mt. lion it would have been exciting. He was on the trail of a mule deer doe and crossed an open area about 50-60 yards right in front of me. There was a little airplane flying around all the time, I'm guessing the wolf was collared. I can't say it added anything to my wilderness experience, it felt artificial since I knew it was trapped in Canada and dropped off here for some reason or other. This was in the Spread Creek area and I hear the elk herd has really been impacted there in the recent years.

Funny you should mention grizz, when I saw the wolf in Wyoming, I was guarding an elk I just killed & quartered. My guide rode back to camp to get a couple pack horses, he told me to get about 50 yards uphill, chamber a round and if a grizz comes fire in the air and holler. If he keeps coming, the elk is his. The rest of the week I went wtih the packers to stand guard while they quartered & packed, the bears had the gut piles cleaned up within days. I heard enough bear stories to keep me awake the first two or three nights in camp.

[fabsroman]

Essentially, what we need to do is take an approach like the anti's do toward our guns. Get rid of a couple at a time. Let's get a hunting season on wolves, even if it is something small. Let's get them knocked down a peg on the endangered species classification to that of threatened instead of endangered. Let's start killing a couple, let the hoopla cool off, and then let the DNR increase the number of tags as it sees fit. Better to start small and get rid of some, than to never start.

I will agree that some of the outfitters are probably struggling from a lack of animals. However, hunting is hunting. It seems as though people have forgotten what it is like to actually go hunting and not get anything. Nobody wants to go out hunting unless they can come back with an animal. That is what really bugs me. These outfitters should still be in business if every hunter was a true hunter. We would all still be paying for the change, not guarantee, of an elk. Maybe if the hunting of wolves is made legal and tags are sold to hunters, there might be some additional demand for these outfitters.

What I cannot believe is that all the people out west have not put enough pressure on Congress to get things changed. Can't Congress change the definition of classifications for animals under the Endangered Species Act, or is this a global treaty? From what I was reading, it seems as though the Endangered Species Act is a US law. How about changing the scientific monitoring/evaluation requirements so that it isn't as tough for the USFWS to meet those requirements (i.e., Courts will not be able to stop the hunting season for a lack of scientific evidence). Put the heat on the people that can do something, and don't vote for them if they don't do anything for you.

[multibeard]

Fabs

I believe that the endangered species act is tied into an international treaty. Cities I think.

The feds have tried to lower the listing of wolves to threatened so that states could control them. Every time they try the courts STOP it.

If the wolves are not controlled soon, there will not be enough elk etc to bother going out there to hunt. Maybe the outfitters can set up guided wolf viewing trips.

The western states have little pull in congress. How many representatives do these totally rural states have. Probably one per state due to there sparse population. There fore they can not get much attention to there problems. The populous States of the east control what they get out there.

Yes the endangered species act needs to be rewritten. The problem is congress has to much work to do to get there pork barrel private interests pushed thru to worry about rewriting it.

As far as your deer problem. I forgot to get a clear definition of how it works in VA from my nephew when I talked to him Sunday. What I do know is that the group he belongs is hired by subdivisions and are paid to shoot the deer IN the subdivisions with bows. Evidently the VA game department lets the subdivisions take care of there own problems by hiring there own shooters. One of the places that I know they hunt is in Yorktown.

Seems like some one needs to wake up the MD game dept. We will send you all the deer management personal from the Mi DNR. They are pros at annihilating a deer herd. They have the deer herd in 2/3 of the state shot off so bad that if you see 2 or 3 deer in a day your feel lucky.

[DaMadman]

Only one thing I have to add to this is.... If the ELK population in Yellowstone has been traumatically affected by the Wolves then I would not have want to see how many Elk there were BEFORE the Wolves got there. I was in Yellowstone just 2 years ago and seen so many elk ity sent my head reeling. There were groups of elk around every corner I turned. If there were more Elk than that before the wolves were brought back then the dang elk were probably starving to death or bein hit on the highways.

BTW all you guys that keep spitting half truths about the wolf that was reintroduced not being the same species, that is a load of crap that was started by the Anti Wolf folk as an excuse as to why it shouldn't have been done. Out of all thepeople I hear talking the talk about the reintroed wolves not being the same as the native species I haven't heard ayone that can tell what the native species was. Why? Becuase the Native species WAS the GRAY WOLFo I'll pose that question to those here that keep regurgitating the crap about it not being the same species.... Show me proof and show me documentation that says what the native species was since they supposedly weren't Gray Wolves. The Wolves that were native to Yellowstone were always Gray Wolves. The only difference in the ones that were there naturally and the once that were reintroduced is that the ones that were reintroduced were hand selected fore being strong and healthy and top of the crop so they would survive the transplant. The Wolves that I keep hearing people say that were transplanted killed the few native wolves that were left. Well no kidding, do you think that might have been do to the fact that Man came in and killed off the majority of the wolves to begin with and the only ones that were left were were the weak and a few stranglers that were having a hard go if it to begin with because Man had killed off the majority of the packs and solitary wolves don't do well in the wild? Maybe ya think?

Anyway I think I said it once before, this could go back and forth forever and never get anywhere so this is the last thing I will say on the subject... (for real this time LOL)

It really was good seeing the different attitudes about the wolf.: Thanks to everyone for the input and keeping it Civil so we could discuss it like adults.

[petey]

Fair Enough... All the wolfs were gray, but not the same evolved gray that came from Canada. Here's a little timeline prior to the "re-introduction" for those who favor that term. Maybe species was the wrong term to use

20,000 B.C. - Cave drawings of wolves are made in southern Europe.

5,000 B.C. - Early agricultural settlements in southwest Asia come into conflict with wolves.

2,300 B.C. - First reference to a wolf in Western literature occurs in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

800 B.C. - Numerous references to wolves are made in Homer's epic poem The Iliad.

500 B.C. - Aristotle describes wolves in his writings.

A.D. 30 - Jesus Christ uses wolf parables to illustrate moral principles.

70 - Pliny the Elder provides a detailed pseudoscientific account fo wolves in his book, Natural History.

70 - Plutarch describes the legend of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome who were raised by wolves, in his Putative Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans.

600 - During the European Middle Ages, legends of werewolves and beliefs that wolves are assoicated with devils abound.

750 - Beowolf, the oldest of the major narrative poems in English, is composed; the protagonist, named for wolf, slays a monster named Grendel.

1600 - William Shakespeare employs dozens of wolf references in his plays.

1630 - First wolf bounty law passed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1632 - First wolf bounty law passed by the Virginia Bay Colony.

1697 - New Jersey offers a wolf bounty.

1750 - Wolves become extinct in the Scottish Highlands at the hands of Lochiel, a clan chieftain, because they "preyed on the red deer of the Grampians." Wolves are similiarly persecuted in western Europe, but do not become extinct in France, Italy, or Spain as they do in other countries.

1758 - Linnaeus recognizes the wolf as a circumpolar species and gives the species the Latin name Canis lupus linnaeus.

1790 - Russian and German naturalists report wolves in Alaska.

1793 - Wolf bounty is offered in Ontario.

1805 - Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark encounter wolves in the Far West.

1808 - Zebulon Pike reports wolves in what is today Colorado.

1819 - The government expedition of Major Stephen Long encounters wolves in large numbers in Colorado.

1823 - As with earlier government expeditions, trapper/explorer James Ohio Pattie documents wolves living in close association with extensive prey populations.

1832 - Artist George Catlin paints Buffalo Hunt Under the Wolfskin Mask, depicting two Pawnee warriors hunting buffalo disguised as wolves, and White Wolves Attacking a Buffalo Bull, which portrays two dozen wolves killing an old bull buffalo. These paintings are later exhibited in New York, London, and Paris.

1835 - America's first internationally known writer, Washington Irving, describes wolves in what is today Oklahoma in his travel narrative A Tour on the Prairies; he is the first professional writer to do so.

1840s - Tens of thousands of settlers head west on the Oregon Trail and the Santa Fe Trail. Increasing settlements come into conflict with wolves and their prey species as the entire Great Plains ecosystem begins to be destroyed.

1860s - Western railroad expansion brings buffalo market hunters to the Far West, decimating the great buffalo herds.

1870s - First cattle drives introduce livestock into previously remote mountain habitat for wolves; sheep herds will come later, leading to even more destruction of wolves and other predators.

1872 - Yellowstone National Park is established in northwestern Wyoming.

1880s - Theodore Roosevelt reports wolves are becoming scarce in the Dakotas.

1884 - U.S. Biological Survey is formed ( a precursor to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).

1894 - Nature writer Ernest Thompson Seton kills the Currumpaw wolf of New Mexico and his mate, Blanca. Seton will eventually write a book, Lobo, King of the Currumpaw, about this experience.

1897 - Frederic Remington paints Moonlight Wolf, depicting a solitary Great Plains wolf (Canis lupus nubilus), a subspecies that would become extinct in a few years.

1899 - Wolf bounty is offered in Alberta.

1909 - Aldo Leopold kills a mother wolf and pups in the Apache National Forest of Arizona. This incident will later inspire his seminal essay "Thinking Like a Mountain" written in 1944 and published posthumously in 1949.

1909 - Wolf bounty is offered in British Columbia.

1914 - Congress designates U.S. Biological Survey as chief predator control agency.

1915 - First professional trappers and hunters hired by U.S. Biological Survey; their heyday will run through 1942 as wolfers operate in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, Arizona, and New Mexico.

1915 - Wolf bounty offered in Alaska.

1916 - National Park Service Act is signed into law, mandating protection of wildlife and maintenance of recreational opportunities.

1916 - The American Far West is divided into control districts by U.S. Biological Survey, thus paving the way for the systematic extermination of all predators through use of poisoned baits (strychnine; Compound 1080 after 1944) and steel leg-hold traps; eventually airplanes and helicopters will be used.

1925 - Last wolf in South Dakota ("Old Three Toes") is killed.

1926 - Since 1914 about 120 wolves have been killed in Yellowstone National Park; after 1926 there are no viable reports of wolves or wolf activity in northwestern Wyoming for a number of decades.

1927 - Last wolf in eastern Montana is killed.

1929 - German novelist Herman Hesse publishes Steppenwolf, a novel that links the impulsive, atavistic nature of man with the same quality of the wolf of the eastern European/western Asian steppes.

1929 - Ernest Thompson Seton publishes Lives of the Great Animals, a seminal work of natual history.

1933 - Wolf bounty law is repealed in Montana.

1934 - Wildlife biologist Adolph Murie begins his study of the coyote in Yellowstone National Park and confirms the wolf in now extirpated. Murie also establishes that the coyote poses no threat to the major game species, most notably elk, that migrate out of the park into national forests, where they can be hunted.

1939 - Adolph Murie begins a two-year study of the relationship between the subartic wolf (Canis lupus pambasileus) and the Dall sheep (Ovis ovis dalli); Murie concludes that the wolf has a "salutary effect" on the prey species, a finding that stirs much controversy in the National Park Service.

1943 - Last wolf in Colorado is killed in Upper Conejos River near Platoro Reservoir.

1944 - Stanley Young's The Wolves of North America (a mixture of fact and folklore) is published. Adolph Murie's The Wolves of Mount McKinley is published; it is the first scientific treatise on the species. Murie is the first professional photographer to extensively document the wolf in the wild.

1948 - Special Act of Congress permits wolf trapping in Mount McKinley National Park over the objections of Adolph Murie and other biologists. Murie later is forced to play a role in this eradication measure, which results in the artificially elevated numbers of caribou seen in the park in the 1960s and 1970s (before the caribou population collapse).

1950s - Aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska and Canada begins in ernest.

1960s - Persistent unconfirmed wolf sightings in Yellowstone National Park will continue until the present time. Radio-collared Alaskan wolves have covered up to 400 miles in one year, so the possibility that the Yellowstone wolves came from Canada cannot be ruled out (nor can the covert release of wolves by unknown parties).

1962 - L. David Mech completes his doctoral dissertation on the wolves of Isle Royale National Park. (This wolf population will later be decimated by canine distemper in the late 1980s.)

1963 - Canadian writer Farley Mowat publishes Never Cry Wolf; a highly successful film will later (1983) dramatize Mowat's adventures in the Canadian Artic and for the first time portray wolves positively to the public in cinema. Leopold report recommends predator restoration.

1964 - Wilderness Act is signed into law; it protects former wolf habitat for furture restoration projects (though not by design).

1970 - Mexican wolf killed Peloncillo Mountains of New Mexico.

1970 - L. David Mech publishes The Wolf; Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species.

1970s - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service captures Mexican wolves in Mexico for captive breeding.

1970s - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service captures red wolves in Texas and Louisiana for captive breeding.

1970s - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service extensively studies the Minnesota wolf populations.

1971 - Quebec ends wolf bounty.

1972 - Ontario ends wolf bounty.

1973 - Edangered Species Act is passed into law. The 1982 amendments will put enforcement strength into the act and provide further clarification on restoration issues.

1974 - Yellowstone wolf search involves 1,800 hours of airplane overflights and reveals only one "wolf-like canid."

1976 - Encouraged by National Park Service officials, Colorado State University graduate student Herb Conley writes a thesis on the restoration of wolves to Rocky Mountain National Park, where the burgeoning elk populations are destroying habitat, as in Yellowstone.

1976 - Two red wolves are released on Bulls Island off the South Carolina coast.

1978 - Barry Lopez publishes Of Wolves and Men.

1979 - Mexican Wolf Recovery Team is appointed; recovery plans for the red wolf and the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf are also institutionalized at this time. Durward Allen publishes The Wolves of Minong: Their Vital Role in a Wild Community.

1980 - Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) is signed into law. It doubles the National Park system and triples national wilderness acreage in Alaska.

[petey]

1980s - Discussions of northern Rocky Mountain grey wolf recovery focus on Yellowstone, central Idaho, and northwestern Montana.

1982 - Montana biologist Diane Boyd completes her thesis on a migrant wolf on the North Fork of the Flathead River near Glacier National Park; during the late 1980s several wolf packs will establish themselves in this region of the United States.

1982 - Arizona wildlife manager David E. Brown publishes The Wolf in the Southwest, which documents the eradication by the federal government of the southern Rocky Mountain gray wolf and Mexican wolf in Arizona and New Mexico.

1983 - Film version of Never Cry Wolf is released.

1985 - Retired professor Alston Chase alleges in his controversial book Playing God with Yellowstone that the National Park Service secretly tried to restore wolves to Yellowstone.

1986 - Eight red wolves arrive at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in coastal North Carolina; after acclimatization they will later be released, with mixed results in terms of adaptation and survivability.

1986 - L. David Mech begins study of arctic wolves in Canadian high Arctic.

1988 - Wolves killed in northwestern Montana by federal agents after livestock depredations.

1988 - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report concludes White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico is a suitable location for Mexican wolf restoration. Army raises objections but drops them in 1991, while livestock interests continue to oppose this. Other sites discussed include Big Bend National Park in Texas, the Gila Wilderness Area in New Mexico, and several wilderness locations in Arizona.

1990s - Wolves are confirmed in Washington, Idaho, and North Dakota.

1991 - Two red wolves arrive at Cades Cove, Tennessee, to be prepared for release in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Red wolves have also been released by this time in Florida, Mississippis, South Carolina, and Alabama in various study projects. (A total of thirty-five red wolves are alive in captivity by 1991, including those in North Carolina.)

1992 - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director John Turner endorses a blue-ribbon report recommending restoration of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park; the environmental assessment process further studies the potential effects of reintroduction on other species, including the threatened grizzly bear (to be completed in May 1993).

1992 - The film Dances with Wolves portrays wolves in a positive light and wins several Academy Awards.

1992 - Rick Bass publishes The Ninemile Wolves, which examines the impact of a newly formed wolf pack near his home in northwestern Montana.

1992 - Polls indicate two of out three Montanans favor natural recovery of wolves in the state.


Wonder what the poll says now? ha ha