Wolf hunt is on — for now
By TODD DVORAK
Associated Press
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 10:27 AM PDT
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| This picture provided by Robert Millage shows his rifle with the first reported wolf killed in Idaho on Tuesday,— the opening day of the state’s 2009 season. The real estate agent took the day off of work to hunt the predators, which were removed from the endangered species list earlier this year. Millage says he shot the wolf from 25 yards near a ridge along the Lochsa River in northern Idaho. |
BOISE — Gray wolves were back in the cross hairs of hunters on Tuesday, just months after they were removed from the federal endangered species list and eight decades since being hunted to extinction across the Northern Rockies.
Hunters in Idaho began stalking gray wolves in a handful of districts in the central and northern mountains. Shortly after dawn, an Idaho real estate agent became the first to report a kill.
Robert Millage of the lumber town of Kamiah bagged an adult female from 25 yards away in the mountains near the Lochsa River, state officials said.
‘’I just wanted to beat my buddies to the punch, but I didn’t know I’d beaten everybody in the state,’’ said Millage, 34, who has hunted in Idaho for 22 years. ‘’It was really an adrenaline rush to have those wolves all around me, howling and milling about after I fired the shot.’’
It remained unclear, however, just how much longer hunters would have to thin the wolf population in Idaho and Montana, which is scheduled to open its season in two weeks.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Montana was expected to rule soon on a request by environmental groups to stop the hunts in both states.
‘’The human population successfully eradicated wolves from this region in the early part of the 20th century, and it would be a true shame after all the efforts that went into recovery if that happened again,’’ said Jenny Harbine, an attorney for Earthjustice, a plaintiff in the case.
An estimated 1,650 of the animals now live in the Northern Rockies thanks to a controversial reintroduction program that started in 1995.
Idaho set a quota of 220 wolves for this hunting season as part of its plan for managing the wolf population. The quota is 75 in Montana.
hellscanyon wrote on Sep 14, 2009 1:18 PM: