Protesters decry wolf hunt

SANDPOINT — Nearly two dozen opponents of wolf hunting in the Northern Rockies lined First Avenue Thursday as attorneys on both sides of the issue laid out their arguments in a federal court in Montana.

Many passersby with thoughts on the matter honked their horns or gave demonstrators the thumbs-up. Only a few jeered or gave them the middle finger.

“We’re getting a lot of positive feedback,” Stephen Augustine, spokesman for the Northern Idaho Wolf Alliance, said as traffic streamed past.

Ken Fischman, who was there to lend his voice to the protest, said he counted 128 positive responses and 14 negative ones during a one-hour period.

The orderly demonstration played out as legal counsel for environmental groups seeking an injunction from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service argued against the injunction and Molloy took the matter under advisement.

It is not clear when the court will rule on the injunction. Idaho’s wolf hunt is scheduled to start today. Montana’s hunt is set to start on Sept. 15.

If Molloy rules against the environmental groups, Augustine said NIWA will continue to voice its message and try to educate the public.

“We think wolves have a rightful place in the ecosystem,” said Augustine.

Unlike a similar NIWA protest in Coeur d’Alene last week, there was no counterdemonstration.

Supporters of the gray wolf hunts maintain the animals are badly thinning the ranks of elk and assailing livestock — contentions which NIWA and its supporters dispute.

“Both of those claims are untrue,” Augustine said.

NIWA points to Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation figures showing Idaho’s elk population fluctuates, but has exceeded 100,000 for several years. The group asserts that hunters may perceive there are fewer elk because wolves are pushing them off valley floors and higher into the mountains.

The group also uses Idaho Fish & Game figures to buttress its contention wolves are only responsible for 1 to 2 percent of sheep depredation and that wild dogs kill four times as many sheep in Idaho than wolves do.

Fischman, a retired geneticist, questions whether wolves are sufficiently biologically recovered in Idaho to justify a hunt. The wolves were removed from the Endangered Species list in May.

“The restoration of wolves has been a great success, but it’s premature to hunt them now,” Fischman said. “The best minds in conservation biology talk in terms of several thousands of animals needed for recovery, not hundreds,” he said.