PINE, Ariz. — The Arizona Game and Fish Department is offering a $2,000 reward for information on elk that were poached near a residential community in Pine, about 15 miles northwest of Payson. Reports to the Department's Operation Game Thief Hotline over the past two months led wildlife managers to several elk that were shot in separate instances in the vicinity of Pine Canyon. The meat was left to waste. Not only were the animals were killed outside of the legal season, it is illegal and unethical to waste game meat in Arizona. Because the carcasses were found near residences, it is possible that someone saw the suspect leaving the area. "Poachers are not hunters; they are criminals who steal…
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On Jan. 13, Colorado’s Park and Wildlife Commission approved a resolution that prevents the reintroduction of grey wolves to Colorado, and Colorado Farm Bureau members attended the hearing to show support of the resolution. (more…)
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When Idaho Fish and Game took over wolf management in 2011, the wolf population had grown unchecked for more than a decade after reaching federal recovery levels of 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves eleven years earlier. This was due to repeated lawsuits that stalled delisting and delayed transfer of wolves to state management. As a result, wolf conflicts with livestock and elk populations were rampant in most parts of Idaho north of the Snake River and livestock producers and hunters grew increasingly frustrated. After five years of state management of wolves in Idaho, we’re seeing positive results: • In 2010, the year before wolves were delisted, there were 109 confirmed wolf depredations on livestock in Idaho. Now livestock depredations…
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The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will hold their next meeting January 27-28 at Fish and Game Headquarters in Boise. The public hearing will begin at 7 pm, January 27 in the Headquarters trophy room. Citizens are invited to address the commission regarding agenda and non-agenda items at the hearing. All testimony will be taken into consideration when the commission makes decisions on agenda items at the meeting. The commission meeting will begin at 8 am, January 28. Routine agenda items include a JFAC budget preview; legislative update, big game briefing, and appointment of Winter Feeding Advisory Committee members. A complete agenda is available on Fish and Game's website under the About Us tab athttp://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/about/commission/2016/01_January/Agenda.html. Individuals may request accommodations by…
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Getting aggressive early with livestock-killing wolves works better than gradually ratcheting up the response, according to research published last November by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Liz Bradley. “Killing livestock is a learned behavior,” said Bradley, based at the Region 2 office in Missoula. “You might have a pack in an area for several years and not have a problem, and then, boom, you have a livestock kill, and then it happens again and again and again. There are many variables, but if you decide removing wolves is the best option, you’re better to take more earlier than picking away at them.” Ten years of data looking at how wolf-pack size and distribution predict livestock attacks has helped…
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The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is asking for public input on the 10-year revision of the Idaho State Wildlife Action Plan. Fish and Game officials are interested in tapping local knowledge and experience to improve Idaho’s plan. When completed, the Action Plan is intended to conserve fish and wildlife by helping landowners, resource-based industries, and land management agencies choose programs and on-the-ground activities that benefit those species that need the most help. All guidance, strategies, and actions suggested in the Action Plan are voluntary and will help prevent future endangered species listings. The Action Plan describes key conservation targets (fish and wildlife species and their habitats), threats to those targets such as noxious weeds and wildfire, and recommended…
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DENVER (AP) — Suspicion over federal plans to restore endangered Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest has spread to Colorado and Utah, where ranchers and officials are fiercely resisting any attempt to import the predators. About 110 Mexican gray wolves — a smaller subspecies of the gray wolf — now roam a portion of Arizona and New Mexico, nearly two decades after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 11 wolves there to restart a population that had nearly vanished. The agency hopes to complete a comprehensive recovery plan for the Mexican wolf in 2017, and officials say they've made no decision about releasing them in Colorado or Utah. But neither state is waiting. Their governors joined Arizona and New…
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Washington, D.C. (January 12, 2016) – In response to President Obama’s final State of the Union address to Congress, Western Caucus Chairman Cynthia Lummis (WY-At large) issued the following statement on the state of the West: “Reviewing the executive’s past seven years of manufacturing regulations, designating land unilaterally, empowering Washington, killing energy jobs, burying agriculture under red tape, and fiddling as the West burns shows President Obama and his Administration have utterly failed the West. But as this regime enters its final year, we can see light at the end of the tunnel at last. “The future holds the key; it holds the opportunity to enact the reforms that Western members of Congress have been pushing these past seven years…
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Written by Jeanne Rife on 13 Jan 2016 The harvest of a strange mountain lion in southeastern Idaho recently has generated lot of fuss among media and the public. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has shared some facts and some extra information about the harvest of this mountain lion and its odd deformity. Last week, a young male mountain lion was harvested legally in the Weston area nearly 8 miles southwest of Preston, Idaho. The mountain lion was seen attacking a dog on the property of a landowner in the rural Weston area on December 30. The mountain lion rushed away, leaving its foot marks behind. The tracks were followed with the help of other properties and ultimately…
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The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is asking for public input on the 10-year revision of the Idaho State Wildlife Action Plan. Fish and Game officials are interested in tapping local knowledge and experience to improve Idaho's plan. When completed, the Action Plan is intended to conserve fish and wildlife by helping landowners, resource-based industries, and land management agencies choose programs and on-the-ground activities that benefit those species that need the most help. All guidance, strategies, and actions suggested in the Action Plan are voluntary and will help prevent future endangered species listings. The Action Plan describes key conservation targets (fish and wildlife species and their habitats), threats to those targets such as noxious weeds and wildfire, and recommended…
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