Visitor Counter

hitwebcounter web counter
Visitors Since Blog Created in March 2010

Click Below to:

Add Blog to Favorites

Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

Subscribe via email to get updates

Enter your email address:

Receive New Posting Alerts

(A Maximum of One Alert Per Day)

Monday, February 3, 2014

A tip pf the Hat for Bllaine County Idaho Commissioner Larry Schoen for inserting a sane and pragmatic voice into what up till now has been a state war on Wolves.............."The model for any state or nation managing its wildlife of drawing its funding solely from hunters and fishermen and to prioritize the needs of hunters and fishermen in all its management decisions for this reason is obsolete, inefficient, ineffective and inadequate"......... "The same would be true for nonsportsmen"......................"It has been said there is no middle ground on the wolf issue"................ "This conclusion is untrue and it is unacceptable because it suggests that there is room only for extreme views and the ongoing conflict and myopia such dynamics have engendered"........................ "Individual wildlife species do not exist in isolation and cannot be managed in isolation"............ "Wildlife do not observe hunting unit boundaries or political boundaries"........... "Broader scientific perspectives and the patience of integrated approaches are needed for long-term effective management and decision-making"........... "Integrated management accounts better for how these species interact with and affect one another and their habitats. Integration here means across species, disciplines, regions and agencies"-------Is it possible that Mr. Schoen's philosophies will grow contagious enough for true co-existence and acceptance of wolves to become a reality in the Idaho landscape?





Larry Schoen: Idaho needs a new wolf management structure

Guest Opinion: Wildlife

January 29, 2014 

Three recent events — Idaho Fish and Game’s hiring of a hunter/trapper to take wolf packs in the Frank Church Wilderness Area, Gov. Butch Otter’s ‘wolf commission’ proposal and the Salmon Wolf/Coyote Derby — have encouraged new voices to make themselves heard online, in newspaper pages across the state and at the Jan. 15 Fish and Game Commission public meeting. The result, refreshingly, has been largely a thoughtful and respectful public exchange about wolves and wolf management.
These three events and public reaction to them are just the latest strong indicators that it is time for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to become the Idaho Department of Wildlife, with funding from fishing and hunting fees, general tax revenues and other appropriate sources.
Having been involved directly in the Wood River Wolf Project in Blaine County since 2008; having promoted the project’s goals at the state and federal levels; having been a claimant repeatedly to Fish and Game for significant wildlife depredation on my crops; and having read and traveled for this issue extensively and participated in field investigations, I have experienced wildlife — including predator — management issues personally and worked with people on all sides.


It has been said there is no middle ground on the wolf issue. This conclusion is untrue and it is unacceptable, because it suggests that there is room only for extreme views and the ongoing conflict and myopia such dynamics have engendered.
The purpose of the multicooperator Wood River Wolf Project has been to develop, deploy and promote effective nonlethal predator deterrent tools for livestock managers on public and private lands in Blaine County. The project has been successful annually since inception. It demonstrates useful alternatives to predator elimination at the first indication of conflict and the potential for coexistence.
Here are eight specific reasons why the model for wildlife management in Idaho has to change and why it will change, sooner or later:
1) Idaho wildlife is a state resource, so the stake in Idaho wildlife belongs equally to all Idahoans. All Idahoans deserve enfranchisement in state wildlife management and policy formation.
2) Adding these enfranchised voices to policy debates — bringing different value systems, different interests in and perspectives on wildlife — will yield new solutions to old problems.

3) It will replace bitterness, fear and resentment with greater understanding, acceptance, support and cooperation among all stakeholders.
4) Becoming a Department of Wildlife will strengthen the ability to meet the goals of fish and game management in order to meet the needs of hunters and fishermen, not overwhelm it.
5) Individual wildlife species do not exist in isolation and cannot be managed in isolation. Wildlife do not observe hunting unit boundaries or political boundaries. Broader scientific perspectives and the patience of integrated approaches are needed for long-term effective management and decision-making. Integrated management accounts better for how these species interact with and affect one another and their habitats. Integration here means across species, disciplines, regions and agencies.
6) The model for any state or nation managing its wildlife of drawing its funding solely from hunters and fishermen and to prioritize the needs of hunters and fishermen in all its management decisions for this reason is obsolete, inefficient, ineffective and inadequate. The same would be true for nonsportsmen. Idaho is among the last to use it.


7) Fish and Game operates with inadequate resources to do its job and today needs additional support and funding.
8) Resistance to change based upon fear fails eventually — always, everywhere. Let us move proactively and with a positive, cooperative spirit to effect needed changes to wildlife management in our state.
Schoen, of Hailey, is Blaine County Commissioner.



No comments: