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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<u><br></u></b>February 8, 2016</p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Contacts:</b> Gary Macfarlane, Friends of
the Clearwater (208)
882-9755<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Ken
Cole, Western Watersheds Project <a href="tel:%28208%29%20429-1679" value="+12084291679" target="_blank">(208) 429-1679</a><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><b>Wolves in Idaho’s ‘Lolo Zone’ Being Gunned Down by
Government <u></u><u></u></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Moscow, ID</i>- Aerial
gunning of wild wolves is underway in remote and rugged areas of
the Clearwater
National Forest, conducted by the federal “Wildlife Services”
agency at the
behest of the Idaho Fish & Game Department. The government is
using
helicopters to kill wolves in the so-called ‘Lolo Zone,’ which
covers portions
of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and stretches north across the
North Fork
Clearwater drainage. Approximately 50 wolves have been killed from
the air in
the Lolo Zone since 2011, despite the low wolf population in the
area and
throughout the state.<br><br><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Aerial gunning operations are occurring in
remote areas of
the Clearwater National Forest. The North Fork Clearwater contains
close to
1-million acres of roadless public wildlands that qualify for
wilderness
designation. These wildlands offer some of the best habitat for
large
carnivores in the entire Lower 48. Despite this, the IDFG seems to
be trying to
sanitize the wild landscape for game animals. <br><br><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The Idaho Fish & Game Department is
wrongfully blaming the
decline of elk populations in the Lolo Zone on native carnivores,
including
gray wolves,” said Gary MacFarlane, Ecosystem Defense Director of
the Friends
of the Clearwater. “Everyone, including the Idaho Fish and Game
Department,
knows the decline is due to long-term habitat changes in that
area. Targeting
predators like recovering gray wolves is unscientific, won’t work
to boost elk
numbers and violates the wildness of these public lands.”<br><br><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Excellent habitat for native predators like
gray wolves,
lynx, wolverines, and fisher exists throughout the Clearwater
National Forest,
including in the Lolo Zone,” said Ken Cole, Idaho Director of
Western
Watersheds Project. “But the Idaho Fish & Game Department
wants to turn
this wild country into an elk farm and that’s ridiculous and
inappropriate.”<br><br><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Conservation groups are especially concerned by
the
precedent of the wolf killing in the Lolo Zone that uses radio
collars to track
the packs, because earlier this year, the Idaho Fish & Game
Department
landed helicopters in the iconic Frank Church-River of No Return
Wilderness to
collar elk and “accidentally” collared a number of wolves, too. <br><br><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The collaring of wolves is one strategy that
Idaho Fish
& Game uses to track down and kill wolves in the Lolo Zone,”
said Gary
Macfarlane. “It is likely that the department collared the wolves
near the
Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness so that they would
eventually know
the location of those individuals and their entire packs. We
suspect the wolf
collaring that took place could end up being used to kill wolves
there too.”<br><br><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Money from the Idaho Wolf Depredation Board
funds the aerial
gunning operations in the Lolo Zone. The fund is a combination of
fees
collected from hunting licenses and state taxpayer dollars.<br><br><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“It’s important for the citizens of Idaho to
realize that
their hard-earned tax-payer dollars on being spent on helicopter
wolf gunning
operations,” said Ken Cole. “Governor Otter should be spending
that money to
fund public schools, highways and other important services, not on
the killing
of Idaho’s native wildlife.”<br><br></p></div></div><br></div>