AR-News: SCI Sends Comments to Officials On Wolf Down Listing

[jim robertson]

June 24, 2004 - SCI Sends Comments to Officials On Wolf Down Listing
Safari Club International has again spoken up for hunters. This time, SCI 
has submitted official comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the 
issue of de-listing the gray wolf. In western states, the deer and moose 
populations can be adversely affected by wolf overpopulation.

SCI has submitted official comments regards to the Service’s proposed 
regulations for the management of experimental populations of gray wolves in 
Idaho and Montana. SCI submitted their comments in support of the March 9, 
2004 proposed rule concerning the ‘Nonessential Experimental Populations of 
the Western Distinct Population Segment of the Gray Wolf.’

The Service published these draft rules “so that States with wolf management 
plans approved by the Service can apply for additional authorities to manage 
wolves consistent with those approved plans.”

The proposed rules are intended to give Idaho and Montana enhanced 
management authority over the experimental populations of wolves living in 
those states. Those two states have submitted gray wolf management plans 
that have been approved by the Service. Total delisting of gray wolves in 
these three states cannot take place until the Service has approved the game 
management plan of neighboring state, Wyoming. Once the Service has approved 
Wyoming’s gray wolf management plan, the Service will delist the species in 
all three states and will transfer management over the wolves to the 
individual states’ authorities.

SCI’s comments stressed continued management of carnivore and ungulate 
populations. These comments, submitted on May 10, 2004, stated that: “SCI 
and SCIF believe that impacts on ungulate populations must be regulated 
through effective management of wolves. The key to socially acceptable 
population levels of wolves will be productive huntable populations of 
ungulate species.”

The Service also held regional meetings on the proposed rules in Boise, 
Idaho and Helena, Montana. George Cobb, SW Montana SCI Chapter President and 
Region 8 Representative, attended the meetings in Helena and submitted his 
own version of written comments for the record. According to Cobb, several 
other individuals and groups also spoke at the hearing but Safari Club 
International was the only organization to submit written data for the 
record.

Some of the other speakers in attendance, who’s comments were officially 
transcribed and entered into the record as well, were the Montana Outfitters 
and Guides Association (MOGA), the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, the 
Montana Woolgrowers and more.

In addition to his comments, Cobb submitted SCI’s official Predator Policy, 
which calls for the management of all predator/prey relationships and 
recognizes that all carnivores, such as wolves, cannot be managed in 
isolation. A copy of SCI’s Predator Policy can be found at 
www.scifirstforhunters.org.


http://www.safariclub.org/articles/index.cfm?action=view&articleID=545&typeID=3&archive=0


“The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long 
before the world runs out of oil.” - Sheikh Zaki Yamani, former Saudi 
Arabian oil minister