By some estimates, wolf numbers in the northern Rockies have already exceeded over twice those projected when the animals were first released in the mid-1990s. Biologists say the wolves have already occupied all of the suitable habitat in the area, and that their numbers must be managed like any other wildlife species.

Tim Craig began his career as a hunting outfitter in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of central Idaho. For 32 years Tim has faithfully returned to the remote wilderness. The main draw has always been elk hunting and the wildness of this 1.3-million-acre roadless expanse of trees and rocky peaks.

“That’s where I cut my teeth; that’s where my heart is,” says Craig, who operates Boulder Creek Outfitters out of Peck, Idaho.

But Craig is fortunate to have several other areas to hunt because, by necessity, he’s on the verge of giving up on the Selway-Bitterroot.

“I never used to ride on a horse for eight hours and only cut only one or two elk tracks,” Craig said. “But that’s what happens now, and you can’t take clients into that kind of situation. I’ve pretty well come to the conclusion that it’s time for me to move on. And I know of eight or nine other outfitters getting out of there as well. I’d be surprised if anybody is still there within five years. It’s that bad.”

While biologists point to invasive plants and hard winters as key factors in big-game declines, Craig and others who spend months camped in the woods single out another, toothier problem — wolves. The Selway-Bitterroot was an original-release location for wolves in 1995 and 1996. In the years since, Tim says, the wilderness area has been hard hit by the resurgence of these predators.

“Wolves come in and run the herd out,” Tim said. “I’ve been here for 32 years in the same areas, and we’ve got some spots where there are totally no elk or deer. “In the backcountry areas, the deer were the first thing that went once the wolves went in. Now they’re just hammering the elk. It’s pathetic.”

PAST TIME FOR ACTION
Since being reintroduced to the northern Rocky Mountains, wolves have steadily spread into haunts they had not roamed since the 1930s. At the end of 2008, some 1,645 wolves were documented in the Northern Rockies. This includes parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon, and part of north-central Utah.

Federal surveys show that Idaho has the densest concentration of wolves, with at least 846. Next high are Montana (496) and Wyoming (302).

In recognition of those numbers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted wolves in early 2009 for the second time in as many years. Though the latest delisting met with predictable lawsuits from anti-hunting groups, indications are that the Obama administration supports the plan. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar needed less than two months to affirm the USFWS decision in early March.

In response, Idaho and Montana plan to have wolf hunts this fall. The states hope hunting wolves will help offset potential losses in hunting income that recent surveys estimated could be as high as $15 to $24 million. Others hope hunting will make the presence of wolves more palatable to hunters who have witnessed the big-game losses.

“It’s way past time to do this,” says Ed Bangs, the USFWS biologist who has overseen the reintroduction of wolves to the west. “(Wolves) should be managed and that management should include hunting. The wolf population can’t keep growing. All the suitable habitat is filled now. So instead of having me in a helicopter shooting wolves after they eat a guy’s cow, you can have hunters pay for the same privilege. By having hunting as part of the equation, you can have a more effective program that’s cheaper.”

WOLVES VS. BIG GAME
Many outfitters and landowners in Idaho and Montana agree that more aggressive wolf management is long overdue. Bangs says verified predation on livestock increased from less than 50 in 2002 to more than 450 in 2007. During the same period, costs associated with killing wolves that prey on livestock doubled to $300,000.

And while livestock predation dominates headlines, big-game herds have also suffered — most notably elk. Dramatic losses have come in Idaho’s famed Lolo hunting zone, north of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Craig says the Lolo zone has “gone from the best elk hunting in the country to where you can’t find a single elk.”

Research backs up those claims. “We can demonstrate that wolves are significantly impacting elk in the Lolo zone,” Idaho Fish and Game Director Cal Groen recently told the Lewiston Tribune. That’s true even though elk started disappearing prior to the reintroduction of wolves.

“The Lolo zone declined largely for other reasons, so it kind of became a cloudy issue,” Idaho biologist George Pauley told the Idaho Tribune. “More recently you could probably make the case that it has declined by wolf predation.

Idaho Fish and Game biologists are in the preliminary stages of a study that shows wolves are the primary cause of death for cow elk in the Lolo zone. Cow elk numbers in the area are shrinking by about 13 percent per year, and only about 75 percent of the cows survive each year. Pauley says cow survival rates need to be closer to 87 percent to maintain a stable population.

Calf survival is also down, with only 75 percent surviving in their second six months of life. Wolves have been linked to 65 percent of the deaths in older calves. That’s why Jim Unsworth, deputy director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department, says predation is keeping the elk herd from rebounding. As a result, no cow tags were sold in the Lolo zone this fall. More restrictions may be instituted in 2010 following aerial surveys.

WHITETAILS ARE DECLINING TOO
Wolves are taking a toll on elk elsewhere too. Hunters in many units north and south of Idaho’s Salmon River reported fewer elk kills than in previous years. As a result, elk tag allocations were reduced this fall for the Salmon zone. Also, fewer tags were issued for the Sawtooth zone north of Boise. In all those cases, Unsworth says wolves are thought to be the main factor limiting elk numbers.

Wolf predation is also evident in Montana. In northwest Montana, hunter harvest surveys revealed a 17 percent decline in the number of
whitetail bucks killed by hunters in 2007. While winter was a factor in that decline, some also point to predation.

Wolves are more clearly to blame for declines in the elk herd around Yellowstone National Park. When wolves were re-introduced in 1995 the elk herd was at a stable 20,000. Today the Yellowstone elk herd is closer to 5,000 or 6,000 animals. Don Laubach is an elk-hunting author and a former outfitter, and he also runs E.L.K. Inc., a company that sells game calls worldwide. His business is located on the north end of the park, and that location offers him a unique perspective.

“Our moose population is just about extinct. The wolves took them first. Next came the elk. At one time this area was kind of referred to as the elk capital of the world. Right now it can’t even be close to being called anything like that,” Laubach says. “It’s just a dying herd is what it is. And until you can control the predators, you won’t see what we saw in the past.”