Idaho wants to land choppers in wilderness to tag wolves

Published 4:06 pm Monday, October 4, 2010

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho again wants permission to land helicopters in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness to dart wolves and outfit them with radio collars.

The U.S. Forest Service resisted a similar request in 2006 to allow choppers into the federally protected wilderness outside of established airstrips.

That didn’t stop the Idaho Department of Fish and Game from landing a helicopter in the wilderness without federal permission after darting a wolf on April 12, 2009, when it was still considered an endangered species. Federal officials labeled the landing “an incursion.”

Environmental groups have argued that such landings disrupt the pristine wilderness. They also fear information from tranquilizing and collaring wolves here could lead to more-aggressive wolf killing across Idaho.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game wildlife managers insist trapping wilderness wolves on foot has been only marginally successful. By combining wolf-collaring missions with helicopter big game counts that occur every winter, they hope to more successfully track packs that roam some of the nation’s most-remote territory.

“We don’t even land, really. We put a toe in. It takes about 15 minutes, once you’ve got a dart in them,” Deputy Fish and Game Director Jim Unsworth said.

“We do believe we have the legal authority” even without permission, Unsworth said Friday. “The reason we want to work with the Forest Service is, because we’re partners and we’d like to do things within their process, if we can.”

His latest plan calls for choppers to touch down up to 20 times in the 2.4-million-acre area to collar up to 12 wolves.

“Some information is known about wolf packs within the state of Idaho, however, extent of range, number of animals, and population dynamics between packs are not well understood, especially in wilderness,” the state argues in its request to the Forest Service.

Idaho wouldn’t use helicopters to kill any wolves in the wilderness, Unsworth said, adding he’d like to eventually expand landings to the 1.3-million-acre Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness on the Idaho-Montana border.

But the 1964 Wilderness Act generally prohibits mechanical transport “except as necessary to meet minimum requirements for the administration of the area.” The Forest Service can authorize such transport after analyzing the impacts.

At least once last winter, Fish and Game landed its helicopter in the Frank Church wilderness after darting a wolf during a big game survey, according to a letter The Associated Press obtained from Chris Grove, a Salmon-Challis National Forest district ranger.

The state agency didn’t publicize the landing; federal employees apparently learned of it while shopping in a Salmon, Idaho, supermarket.

“ID Fish and Game did dart and land a helicopter in the Frank Church last winter,” Grove wrote Aug. 25 in response to a private citizen’s inquiry. “The Regional Forester took a direct interest in this, and the incursion was handled at the Regional Forester and Fish &Game Director level.”

Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials said the helicopter was on the ground briefly to retrieve the employee who outfitted a large white wolf with a radio collar.

“The total time that the helicopter was in contact with the ground for both drop-off and retrieval was less than 15 seconds,” according to an April 25 Fish and Game e-mail about the incident.

Some groups are suspicious Idaho’s proposed flights will contribute to killing wolves, which now number about 1,000 in the state. When the flights were proposed in 2006, wolves were still protected under the Endangered Species Act. Federal protections were lifted this year in Idaho and Montana, and 13 environmental groups have sued, claiming the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s delisting was illegal.

Since delisting, Idaho is letting hunters shoot up to 220 wolves this year in an initial hunting season, which could help reduce their numbers to between 700 and 800 animals. State managers eventually want to cut wolf numbers to near 2005 levels of 520 animals, but Jon Marvel, head of the Hailey, Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project, says the law requires only a wolf population of 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs to keep them off the endangered species list.

Idaho could use information gleaned from wilderness helicopter missions to accelerate wolf killing where conflicts with ranchers and hunters are more common, he said.

“If all of those breeding pairs are found inside the Frank Church, then you can kill all the wolves outside the wilderness with impunity,” Marvel said.

Idaho Fish and Game officials haven’t met with Marvel about their latest proposal, but they have spoken to other groups, including The Wilderness Society and the Idaho Conservation League. Both opposed helicopter flights in 2006; this time around, Rick Johnson, the Idaho Conservation League’s executive director, is so far withholding judgment.

“They’re doing a better job,” Johnson said. “But given the volatility of the wolf issue, everybody is going to view this from probably the worst-case scenario. Part of the challenge is, you have a state leadership that has been quite strongly on the record on the degree of control they want to provide.”