The State of Idaho has been managing wolves in our state since 2011, and the result has been terrifying. Read the talking points below to learn why federal and Tribal management of Idaho's wolves is needed to protect this important and sacred species in Idaho's wildlands.
March 2025 Update: TAKE ACTION! Attend the Idaho Fish & Game Commission public hearing on March 25 in Boise to voice your concerns about wolf hunting and trapping in Idaho!
Talking Points
It’s not hunting. It’s eradication.
- Idaho wildlife officials years ago said we would manage wolves in the same manner as other carnivore species – mountain lions and black bears. We knew there would be some level of hunting, but what’s going on now isn’t hunting – it’s persecution.
- Having an 11 month season, baiting, night shooting with night vision and infrared scopes, year round trapping, use of dogs, and a bounty system that is receiving public money to pay for it – all of this amounts to an all-out assault on wolves. It’s simply disgraceful and has no semblance of fair chase, ethical hunting of a species.
Look at the facts. Wolves aren’t decimating elk herds.
- This comes at a time when Idaho has healthy herds of deer and elk. In fact, just a few years ago Idaho Fish and Game boasted about eight seasons in a row with an elk kill by hunters of more than 20,000 animals, an all-time record.
- In fact, Idaho Fish and Game several years ago gunned down more than 200 elk in a single night. Hunters were livid that hunting opportunity was taken from them by state culling. This speaks to the conflicting messages coming from the state – that there are too many wolves and yet too many elk. Which is it?
Idaho's approach is disgraceful and antiquated.
- This state has been seen nationwide as a disgrace in the way we’re managing wolves. We’re openly trying to bring wolves down to the bare minimum number of 150 wolves. There is no other species of wildlife we manage like that.
- It’s time for Idaho to stop this embarrassing spectacle of treatment of wolves, get into the 21st Century and resume some sane, responsible management of wolves. We understand that will include some level of hunting, but not this regressive, 1800s approach.
Many Idahoans—including hunters—value wolves.
- There are many Idahoans who value having wolves on the landscape, playing their role in the ecosystem and selecting for weaker, less fit big game. We like to see them when we’re hiking, skiing, and enjoying Idaho’s wildlands. We are sick of being marginalized by a few extremist voices who want to slaughter wolves.
- Many of us are hunters too, and yet we understand that wolves have a place on the landscape, playing their role in the ecosystem. We’re appalled by what’s going on.
State management has been a disaster. Grizzlies need to maintain federal protections, too.
- Finally, Idaho’s management of wolves is a model for how the state would approach grizzly bear management. You’ve set a low bar, and state management would be a death sentence for most of the grizzly bears in Idaho. This must stop.