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Manage Wolves with Sound Science

Dear [Decision Maker],

Sierra Sportsmen is a network of over 1,500 anglers and hunters from around the country. We value healthy fish and game populations, sound wildlife management, wild places, and the opportunity for all Americans to enjoy them. We contact you today regarding the management of wolves in the Northern Rockies.

We encourage you to insure the management of wolves in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming be directed by sound science, and not inflamed passions.

Given research indicates wolves:
-- help maintain healthy game populations (David Mech, biologist, University of Minnesota, 1970)

-- prevent game from overgrazing vegetative resources, (Douglas Smith, biologist, Yellowstone National Park, 2003)

-- improve water resources for other wildlife, (R.L. Beschta and W. J. Ripple, biologists, Oregon State University, 2006),

-- have not reached numbers that will sustain genetic diversity if aggressively reduced (200+ biologists, in letter to FWS Wolf Recovery Coordinator Ed Bangs, May 9, 2007)

-- are not unduly reducing elk numbers, as Montana and Wyoming are over statewide elk objectives, and Idaho is at peak elk objective, (Alan Charles, biologist, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, 2007)

-- have generated $70 million a year in wolf-related tourism for the communities near Yellowstone National Park (John Duffield, economist, University of Montana, 2006),

We are concerned by the recent FWS proposal to allow the killing of wolves in game units where "the state or tribe has determined that wolves are one of the major causes of the (big game) population or herd not meeting established state or tribal population or herd management goals."

We believe the potential for a catastrophic reduction of wolves under this rule is high, and application of the rule may be more influenced by politics than sound science. As such, we encourage a rigorous and peer-reviewed scientific threshold for evaluating a) the effect of wolves on big game populations within any game unit, and b) any potential actions to reduce wolf numbers.

We believe wolves have a natural role to play on our American landscapes, and enrich the experience of those sportsmen who share the field with them. We hope the American standard of sound scientific wildlife management will be applied to wolves in the Northern Rockies, and the game they prey upon.

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