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Well... I'm going to get very unpopular fast. Please remember, I've been a part of the reintroduction of wolves since I was a child, so don't begin to bash me saying I don't love wolves. They're one of my favorite animals.

However...

The reintroduction has gone wonderfully. This is what we were WORKING for. It was part of the plan from the very beginning of the wolf introduction for the states to be able to take control and for the wolves to be off the endangered species list. Everyone knew that when we got here there would probably be wolf hunts to maintain a population that was established before the reintroduction was started (ie, our goals of having a certain number of wolf packs, if surpassed, a hunt would happen.)

http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/2 ... gement.htm
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008 ... news03.txt
http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/wo ... /C147/L38/

Most of the areas where the wolves are now are in far excess of the original goals. And states have effectively not wiped out cougars, bears, and other large game animals. There is a lawsuit going on so it's going to be years away, but the Bush/Cheney administration has put this off for 4 years since it was first brought to their attention that the wolves had met the levels required for states to take over control.

The only questions now are whether a larger population is actually needed or not (there's no real science to back up environmentalists claims that there have to be over 15,000 wolves...) and whether the removal of certain members of the packs would disrupt pack behavior (the only way to find out is to do it... and study the repercussions.)

But I get pretty sick of some of the wolf groups now who won't even consider the other side at all. These are animals. And eventually they will be hunted in order to maintain populations at appropriate levels.

what is that? Just wondering because the delisting went into effect as of today!!!

That's the bare minimum population. As in... that's the bare minimum they would want to see in the wild. Most of the states actually are saying they want to hunt to maintain population levels where they are now, not bringing them down to the number set by the reintroduction goals years ago. Note, the "could hunt down to 300" in the original post. That could is not a would, and no interviews has given a "we're going to hunt them down to the bare minimum we have to keep."

Also, if wolves fall below a certain level, federal control takes emergency control back. Not something states want. They're going to stay away from those numbers.

You have to read every side of the story and really dig to make sure you don't get only one side. The political garbage that has been happening with the wolf reintroductions since Clinton's administration, while it has helped with the reintroductions, it's been really really annoying. And it's still going on. So everything you get just about is slanted, again REALLY annoying. You have to dig to try and find the non-slanted info.