Wolf Weekly Wrap-up

Idaho wolf hunt commences (slowly) – Eager Idaho hunters are once again taking aim at wolves across the state this week, with the fall backcountry hunt officially starting on Tuesday. But the season appears to be off to a slow start, despite all the hype in the region for the past several months. This story in the LA Times says tag sales were just a fraction of what they were for the previous wolf hunt in 2009, and not much news has surfaced yet about how many wolves have been killed. According to Idaho Fish and Game’s website, only one wolf have been harvested so far though there is a reporting delay of up to 72 hours. Hopefully, this means all the anti-wolf rhetoric was mostly hot air and not a serious attempt to immediately and drastically reduce the state’s wolf population. Only time will tell, so keep your fingers crossed.

Wolfing in Wallowa Valley – While wolves are now being hunted in Idaho, the animals are drawing new crowds of eco-tourists over in Oregon’s Wallowa County. In this special to the Oregonian, Beckie Elgin shares her insights into the magic of wolf-watching during a recent trip to northeast Oregon where her family stayed at Barking Mad Farm Bed and Breakfast and took a guided wolf tour with local wildlife advocate Wally Sykes. Though Elgin, her son and two daughters did not see a wolf in the end, they enjoyed their “wolfing trip” nonetheless:

During our visit, the closest we come to spotting a wolf is seeing Kumo, Sykes’ gentle giant of a dog.

But we aren’t disappointed. We enjoy time together, without TV, cellphones or computers, and new stories are born, such as our tortuous hike to Hells Canyon and back, skirting a rattlesnake on the trail, and reaching the Snake River, where son Dylan casts in, hoping to catch salmon for dinner.

We see gorgeous wildflowers, elk, soaring prairie falcons, osprey, a dancing prairie chicken, even a perturbed-looking badger. At night, we keep warm around our campfire at Buckhorn Overlook, hear howls that silence us in anticipation, then make us laugh when the howls escalate into the familiar yelping of coyotes.

After the long hike searching for wolves beneath the hot sun on the Salt Creek Summit, bordering the Eagle Cap Wilderness, we return to town and say goodbye to Sykes and Kumo.

I see a new family tradition developing, one that lends itself to the type of outdoor adventure my adult kids crave. We will travel together to this far corner of Oregon until the wolves decide we are ready to see them.

Can wolves help save lynx? – What do gray wolves have to do with Canada lynx? A lot, it turns out. A new study from Oregon State University researchers published in Wildlife Society Bulletin on Monday explains that the recovery of one endangered species (wolves) is paving the way for the recovery of the other (lynx). The return of wolves to the landscape has helped reduce the number of coyotes, which, in turn, has taken pressure off of snowshoe hares, the primary prey of lynx. As demonstrated many times before, this “trophic cascade” runs up and down the food chain as apex predators like wolves fulfill their natural role of keeping prey species in check. In the wolf’s absence, coyotes, deer, elk and many other species flourished to the detriment of other species. Now that wolves are back, they’re helping to reduce the coyote population which leaves more food (i.e., snowshoe hares) for the imperiled Canada lynx. Read more from the Register-Guard and on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Ecotrope blog.

Tester, Rehberg both want credit for wolf delisting – In case it wasn’t clear enough before, Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Denny Rehberg both tried to score political points with potential supporters this week by taking credit for the delisting of gray wolves. The unprecedented move this spring that resulted in the first-ever legislative delisting of an individual species was seen as a reckless abuse of Congressional authority and an affront to sound science across most of the country. But out West, both men are trying to paint the political deal as a major victory for their constituents (America’s great conservation legacy and successful wildlife laws be damned!). Montanans are in for an interesting battle next year as Tester and Rehberg vie for the same spot in the Senate.