Credibility obviously isn’t a major concern of this administration. It certainly not a concern of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) under present USFWS Director Dan Ashe. In the past, Ashe helped promote supervisors who retaliated against long time service biologist “whistleblowers.” Those "whistleblowers" brought out facts that the service misused scientific data and information to skew results to enhance the service’s intended objectives. And especially those related to endangered species and predator hunting.

Background

Recently, Ashe praising avowed anti-hunter, Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS), as one of the good guys in Alaska’s wildlife management scheme. Then he went on to tout his “holier than thou,” attitude about wresting 76 million acres of National Wildlife Refuge lands from Alaska’s Fish & Game Board and the Fish & Game Department. A game board consisting of hunters, guides, trappers, a lodge owner and NRA-member outdoorsman. A group that dang sure beats the hell out of a bunch of political hacks, doctors, lawyers and the like. All of this, so Ashe and his lackeys can salve their egos and advance their political agenda at the expense of Alaskans and sportsman across the country.

This is an illegal and unconstitutional act to prevent predator management of any kind. And especially on these game rich lands and return them to management by “natural diversity.” The goal was balance between the predators and prey species to the benefit of all, even those Alaskans who subsistence hunt for survival. This is pure stupidity, without a smidgeon of scientific backing.

It's easy to witness the USFWS’s capabilities of  managing  predators and prey on a grand scale for the betterment of the world. All one has to do is check out the facts on their totally illegal, ill-advised and ego-driven $60-million reintroduction of wolves into the Northern Rocky Mountains.

Impact

Yellowstone Park’s once thriving, stable herd of nearly 20,000 elk. That helped bring millions if not billions of dollars into many communities and state coffers. It has now been reduced to less than 4,000 animals due to this “natural diversity.” In reality, wolves kill anything they can catch and eat only what they want. Perhaps Pacelle and Ashe ought to do some serious studies on predator hunting rather than killing only what they need to survive. Nah! They don’t want to be bothered by facts and reality!

I’ve personally seen places in Alaska where the wolves killed every moose in the area. It's been as bad as nine in one instance. And they only ate a portion of a single moose before moving on to kill again. Talk to ranchers about the numbers of livestock killed by coyotes and wolves simply for the sake of killing.

Lolo And Selway Wilderness Areas

In July of this year, I moved to Elk City, Idaho — right in the heart of the USFWS-wolf reintroduction fiasco. I’ve witnessed firsthand the seriousness of their downright stupid, illegal, ego and politically motivated wolf reintroduction. What it has wrought on one of the greatest elk-hunting areas of the country, not to mention its effects on the once-burgeoning moose population.

Elk City is located adjacent to the famed Lolo and Selway Wilderness areas long known for their superb quality elk hunting. The wolf depredation probably peaked in this area from 2008 to 2012. By that time the wolves had virtually decimated the moose population. A healthy, growing population that supported 60 moose hunting tags in 2000 dropped to almost zero in 2013. The season remains closed today with virtually no moose sightings in an area that brought tourists and their dollars.

The wolf reductions on elk were equally as devastating. Today the number of hunters in this area is a small percentage of what it was before wolves. Locals tell of counting over 800 head of elk wintering in the grassy parks in and around Elk City prior to the wolves arriving. that number is now below 200.

In 2002 the Idaho wolf management plan called for a total of 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs statewide. The 2015 wolf counts were 786 wolves in 108 packs with 20 border packs (which alone average 6.4 wolves per pack). That brings the total to 914 wolves in Idaho. A number even some state officials agree may be way low.

The time for predator management is past and as one well-known biologist stated it’s time for predator CONTROL!

No Seasons, No License, No Limits.