--- begin forwarded text
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2000 11:37:54 -0700
From: WDR <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: dire straits for the wolf
Subject:
Fw: Stanley Pack to be killed
Date:
Thu, 7 Sep 2000 09:35:51 -0600
From:
"Craig Axford" <[log in to unmask]>
This message is forwarded from the Utah Environmental Congress. For
those who haven't been following the government wolf killing due to
depredation on cows, sheep, and ranch dogs, read this and tell the
government--Fish & Wildlife Service, Forest Service and BLM--that
this is the beginning of the biggest all-out war to end public lands
grazing that they have seen yet. We intend to win this one, and
sooner is better
for all concerned.
Nancy Zierenberg, Wildlife Damage Review, [log in to unmask]
Dear Members and Friends of the UEC,
The following message was sent to us by George Wuerthner, a
tireless advocate for wildlife. While the story attached to the
message is a couple of pages long, it demonstrates why environmental
organizations and environmentalists everywhere need to oppose public
lands grazing. The simple truth is public lands grazing is totally
incompatible with wolf recovery and the preservation of other native
wildlife. The
ranching industry continues to show a complete disregard for the species
that live on the lands they use to raise livestock.
Please take a few moments to read this message and send a brief
letter of protest to the federal officials listed at the end of the
message. We face this situation with cougar and bear in Utah
presently, and if
the wolf returns, under current conditions its preservation will be second
to that of sheep and cattle. This is totally unacceptable and it is time we
all stood up and said so. Negotiating with the ranching industry,
compensating the ranching industry, and subsidizing the ranching
industry has gotten
us nowhere. Enough is enough.
Craig Axford
Program Director, UEC
www.uec-utah.org
[log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 12:13 AM
> Subject: Stanley Pack to be killed
>
>
> > I received this email about the Stanley pack in Idaho's Sawtooth
>Valley from a friend. Again one sees where the land and wildlife is
>sacrifised to keep domestic livestock on our public lands. Even in
>the absence of
wolves, the area is being overgrazed due to the drought--yet
apparently the FS refuses to terminate the sheep grazing that is
creating the conflicts. Is this how we "recover" endangered species
and care for the land? See
details below in his message and information.
> >
> > **********
> >
Hi folks:
One of the darkest pages of the wolf recovery appears to be underway
right now in the Swath Valley of Idaho. We have a situation where
there have been very minor sheep losses from a hostile and
uncooperative sheepers. Nevertheless, Idaho's most visible and one
of its largest wolf packs faces dismemberment. This is in a area, the
Sawtooth National Recreation Area, where legislatively wildlife and
recreation come first. There appears to be a total lack of
leadership in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and denial by the
Forest Service of the problem of grazing and wildlife on the SNRA.
Although it was not planned, federal agencies the Defenders of
Wildlife's wolf compensation may have set up a situation where the
sheepperson has a positive incentive to let wolves kill his sheep.
> >
THE STORY
<http://www.forwolves.org/ralph/stanleypackperil3.html>
> >
The Boulder White Clouds Council indicated today the Stanley Pack has
killed one more ewe of William Brailsford. Lethal control is expected
to begin on the Stanley Pack in 4 th of July Creek in the White
Clouds mountains this morning. All told it appears the pack has
killed about 6 of his sheep this summer.
> >
The U. S. Forest Service has rejected pleas to remove the sheep a
couple weeks early despite the severe drought conditions in the
area. BWCC reports that they tried to volunteer to stay with the
sheep flock at night but have
been turned away by the flock's owner, Brailsford. The BWCC has
called the Forest Service many times, but to no avail. The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service continues to insist that once a pack has
begun to kill livestock, they must be removed. There seems to be a
feeling that wolves are thriving so well in central Idaho, that the
decimation
of Idaho's most visible pack is no problem. Nevertheless, they seem
to have little information as to how this summer's vast wildfires
affected the wolves. The fires burned extensively in the territories
of the: Chamberlain Basin Pack, Jureano Mountain Pack, Landmark
Pack, Thunder Mountain Pack, Selway Pack, and to a lesser extent, the
Kelly Creek Pack and Moyer Basin Pack.
> >
Six members of the Stanley Pack have radio collars. There are13
adults or sub-adults in the pack. The BWCC reports that any
sub-adults caught in traps will be shot, the alpha pair will be
removed from the Sawtooth National Recreation Area even though there
is no place to put them, especially given the large portion of
central Idaho that has burned. This year's pups will be radio
collared and released. The pups are probably too small to survive on
their own. So they will be sowing the seeds for more trouble.
> >
There is a great double standard at work in this situation. The
Sawtooth National Recreation Area has began a controversial program
that charges the public $5 to use a trailhead (or $15 per year).
Meanwhile
livestock operators pay just $1.35 a month for five sheep to graze in
an area where wildlife and recreation are supposed to come first.
that is 27 cents a month per sheep. Moreover, every operation to kill
a wolf costs from several hundred to several thousand dollars.
> >
While the SNRA certainly needs the money for recreational
improvements, there is growing resistance Hailey-Ketchum area to
paying the fee because of the double standard of the Forest Service.
It is not hard to
see why. Summer recreationists pay many times what the sheep or
cattle operators pay to have their trip disrupted by stinking
livestock which push deer and elk out the areas the livestock use,
and eat the grass the wildlife needs, reducing the prey for wolves,
cougar, bears and human hunters in the fall.
> >
Given this situation it is in the interest of a sheep operator to
have wolves kill sheep. (1) They are compensated by Defenders of
Wildlife for losses. (2) Wolves, which they dislike, are killed when
they lose just one sheep no matter what their grazing practices may
be. (3) A few dead sheep give them the opportunity to portray wolves
as vicious killers.
There seems to be a vacuum of leadership in the Boise, Idaho office
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The new manager, Carter
Neimeyer assumes the vacant position September 11. Regarding
livestock, wolves
and sheep Neimeyer was quoted in the Twin Falls Times News the other
day. " But ranchers have a responsibility to take the presence of
wolves into account. And wolf advocates also have to recognize the
rancher has other factors
to consider. Meanwhile there are things herders can do -- shoot guns
at night and communicate with wolf managers to coordinate wolves and
herd locations to try to avoid conflict. "If you drive the sheep in
on top of the
wolves, you're gonna have kills," Niemeyer said.
> >
One final irony, On August 10, a range fire caused by a lightning
strike burned over 30,000 acres near the small south central Idaho
town of Dietrich. This fire swept across the range at speeds in
excess of 50 mph. In one case it burned 545 cows, calves and bulls
that belonged to just one rancher. Another rancher lost over 80 head
in the fire. There has been virtually no news about the incident
beyond the local newspaper.
> >
You can also email Defenders of Wildlife asked them not to compensate
for these sheep if their investigation shows the sheep were
deliberately used to provoke wolf attacks.
> >
Ed Bangs is not in for the next few days. I have encouraged people
not to contact him in the past, but this situation requires it. The
Forest Service seems to be in deep denial of the double standard and
their responsibility to manage grazing so it doesn't conflict with
wildlife and recreation on the SNRA. To let the Forest Service know
your opinion, you can contact the following:
> >
Ed Bangs
(406 )449-5225 ex204 (not in the next several days)
[log in to unmask]
> >
In his absence Joe Fontaine 406-449-5225
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Forest Supervisor Bill LeVere
> > Sawtooth National Forest
> > 2647 Kimberly Road East
> > Twin Falls, ID 83301
> > e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> > Phone: 208/737-3200
> >
> > Deborah DesLaurier, Ranger
> > Sawtooth National Recreation Area
> > Star Route Ketchum, ID 83340
> > e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> > Phone: 208/727-5000 (leave message)
> >
> >
>
--- end forwarded text
--
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Rex L. Bavousett
Photographer
University of Iowa
Our old name: University Relations - Publications
Our new name: University Communications & Outreach - Publications
100 OPL, Iowa City, IA 52242
http://www.uiowa.edu/~urpubs/
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