Wildlife conservation groups petition U.S. Forest Service to stop aerial wolf hunting in Idaho
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by Julian Matthews, Idaho Capital Sun January 11, 2024
For the Nimiipuu people, protecting wolves and grizzly bears is akin to protecting a family member. According to our law, every animal has a vital place in this world. When we disrupt that, we upset the entire balance within an ecosystem. We believe strongly in the sacredness of all life. Since time immemorial, we have shared this land with wolves and bears – sharing our resources, sharing food and learning from one another. It is critical that we maintain protections for our relatives, the wolves and grizzly bears, to ensure these species can continue to carry out their roles on this land.
In recent years, wolves and grizzly bears have been hunted in the Northern Rockies. The risk of hostile state control in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana only compounds the risks those species already face. To ensure the continued recovery of grizzly bears and gray wolves, it is necessary to continue protections under the Endangered Species Act, especially in light of the aggression we have observed toward those species in our states.
More recently, Montana and Wyoming have called on the federal government to remove Endangered Species Act coverage for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem and the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem. Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment hopes that these requests will be rejected and ensure continued coverage. of grizzly bears in our area. We’ve already noticed what has happened to wolves in the Northern Rockies since they were delisted: We allow grizzly bears to face the same hostile state control and excessive kills.
Wildlife Conservation Groups Call on the U. S. Forest Service to Stop Protecting the Forest Service. U. S. Gov. to Stop Aerial Wolf Hunting in Idaho
Our group is also part of a lawsuit challenging Idaho’s wolf trapping and snaring laws that facilitate the killing of up to 90% of Idaho’s gray wolf population. The lawsuit contends that continued and expanded wolf trapping and snaring will injure and kill non-target grizzly bears, which are protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Idaho has ignored the potential impacts to grizzlies and charged forward with its extreme killing practices to eradicate as many wolves as possible. We joined this lawsuit to end the trapping and snaring of wolves in grizzly bear habitat during non-denning periods.
In just one year after Idaho’s new and competitive wolf trapping and trapping legislation went into effect in 2021, Idaho’s wolf population has declined by 13%. We will do everything we can to protect and coexist with wolves and grizzly bears, not to actively facilitate their eradication. These species are incredibly vital to the Nimiipuu people, and we are racing to prevent attacks on those species, for the sake of our environment and for the sake of future generations.
Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment recently spoke with tribal elders to document their stories about wolves and grizzly bears. An old man spoke of seeing a gray wolf and the beauty of that experience: of having an almost ghostly figure passing by at an immediate speed and how lucky they felt afterwards. Another explained how we are connected to wolves and grizzly bears through our shared food and resources. Another marveled at the harmonies of the wolves singing to each other through the canyons. Another’s daughter is named after the wolf because she worked hard to take care of her family and children. And a few others spoke of a desire to work to better understand grizzly bears and their needs and restore our ecosystems to their natural configuration.
The stories highlight the importance of grizzly bears, wolves, and the rest of the plant world to the Nimiipuu people for generations. These stories are passed down to all of us: the stories of our ancestors and the importance of those species in ensuring the continued survival of our landscapes and each of us. Each of us is connected. As we face continued loss of nature, we fight more intensely to protect those species, not harm them.
In the coming months, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service will continue to call on the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The U. S. Coast Guard will decide whether to continue to protect grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem and the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem. We hope the company will continue to protect the species as climate change and habitat destruction, and increased bear killings have only made the situation worse. We will need to do everything we can to further foster connections between isolated grizzly bear populations and reaffirm our commitment to their recovery in descent 48, adding priority ecosystems such as Bitterroot and Cascades.
And as we move toward a decision in our Idaho litigation, we are hopeful for a ruling that protects both wolves and the ESA-protected grizzly bears that are indiscriminately killed through trapping and snaring. The Endangered Species Act has afforded grizzly bears protections and Idaho’s extreme killing program for wolves has put both species at risk.
In recent years, the government of this region has been incredibly hostile toward species that indigenous communities and most Americans know and love. People come from all over the world to see our grizzly bears and wolves, and they spend a lot of money on our domain when they’re here. We will protect those species and the role they play in our ecosystems, culture and economy, not attack them. Extreme hostility towards those keystone species will only harm us all if it continues.
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Julian Matthews is a member of the Nez Perce Tribe and the coordinator for Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment.
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