Speak Up!  

Tell the Idaho Fish and Game what you think about their plans for a wolf- hunting season  

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       Jim Dutcher                     Jamie Dutcher

What Has Transpired and What Have We Accomplished?

We've compiled a brief history of recent the political decisions that have threatened the survival of wolves and the projects we've undertaken to in an effort educate those in decision-making positions and the children in whose hands the future of wolves will lie.

Our team is focused on pinpointed actions to dispel the rumors and myths that hold wolves captive in the minds of many people. This winter, we worked tirelessly to inject much-needed reality into a critical legislative season for wolf issues, both in the U.S. Congress, and in the states where wolves now live. Unfortunately, disregard for readily available facts continues to be a driving force behind legislative and policy decisions.

Autumn 2010: It became obvious that the wolves of the West would be used as a bull's-eye for baseless Congressional legislation that could undermine the Endangered Species Act as well. Since we have unparalleled experience with wolves, we were hard at work, advising and consulting with other concerned groups, and collaborating with organizations in response to the pending legislation. Most importantly, we began writing a clear, concise report (4MB download), designed for the U.S. Congress. Its purpose was to untangle the caustic misinformation fueling this legislation, and to bring clarity to the issue, taking the heart of the matter directly to lawmakers.

January: Our board member Senator John Tunney wrote a hard-hitting letter to every current member of the U.S. Congress, reminding them of his central role as the Senate floor manager of the original Endangered Species Act, and the folly of anti-wolf legislation.

Senator Tunney also enlisted the help of Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, adding the respected voice of a past Republican Senator from the East to his own voice as a Western Democrat. Their letters lent compelling heft to our urgent report, placing it front and center before the members of Congress.

February: Idaho Representative Mike Simpson stealthily attached an anti-wolf rider that never once mentioned the words "wolf" or "Endangered Species Act" to the national budget bill.

After meticulous research and fact-checking, our report went to press. We traveled back to Washington, D.C., where we met with a team of volunteers provided to us by Earthjustice, The Endangered Species Coalition and The Sierra Club. We then set out to  hand-deliver our report to the offices of each and every U.S. Senator and Representative.

March: Representative Mike Simpson's anti-wolf rider was removed as the proposed House budget bill went to the Senate. There, Montana Senator Jon Tester quickly reattached the anti-wolf rider using Simpson's language, word for word, to an already contentious federal budget that had to be passed. 

As we manned phones and answered questions, we mailed additional copies of our timely report to state and regional officials, to scientists, professors, wildlife managers and press representatives, hoping to forestall the political damage taking place in Washington.

And April: As the budget bill with its anti-wolf rider hit the Senate floor, we unveiled our Living with Wolves exhibit of extraordinary photographs with informative captions in the marble rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building. No one entering the building could possibly miss it. Facilitated by Senator John Kerry, our large-as-life images of the Sawtooth Pack drew in thousands of viewers: Senators, their staff members and visitors. The National Geographic Society, where our library of images is kept, contributed to these large, museum-quality panels that will now become the basis for a traveling exhibit that we plan to have tour the nation.

Despite our best efforts and hard work, the budget bill passed with the deadly wolf language intact.  

State Management of Wolves: What Will it Look Like? 

We know that state management of wolves is going to be very aggressive. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has approved a fall hunting season that will allow hunters to kill 220 of their 566 wolves.  

The Idaho Fish and Game recently published a wolf hunting season proposal that will allow for the first time the trapping and snaring of Idaho's wolves. Each trapper can kill seven wolves if they plan to both shoot and trap wolves. Each hunter can kill four wolves throughout the hunting season, two wolves in the fall of 2011 and again two more in the first three months of 2012. Also, hunters can now use electronic calls (mimicking prey distress calls, such as that of a wounded rabbit) to draw in unsuspecting wolves. Unlike in Montana, where the season will close once a predetermined number (220) of wolves are killed, in most of Idaho there will be no set quotas, allowing the killing to continue through the entire seven month-long season, stretching from the end of August until the end of March. By late March, the breeding females will be pregnant and they too will be targeted.

IMPORTANT: Idaho Fish and Game has asked for your input on their proposed wolf hunting and trapping seasons. Please take this survey and submit your opinion through additional comments before the cutoff date of Sunday, July 24.

Meanwhile, playing directly into the hands of anti-wolf hysteria, the Idaho Legislature enacted a Wolf State of Disaster Emergency Law, a declaration typically reserved for  real and serious emergencies. This law claims that wolves present "a clear and present danger to humans," and are "dramatically inhibiting previously safe activities such as walking, picnicking, biking, berry picking, hunting and fishing." 

Note: Not a single person has had a violent encounter with a wolf   

anywhere where wolves were reintroduced in the Northern Rockies.  

How Will Living with Wolves Proceed?

For all of these reasons, we have been building relationships to establish open dialogue with those now in charge of managing wolves. In the past month, Living with Wolves has met with Idaho and Montana wildlife managers and agency directors, and with the incoming Director and Regional Supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We will continue to maintain this dialogue.

As our reputation has grown in stature, and as wolves are once again threatened by overly aggressive state management plans, our work has increased in urgency. Focused on education and policy rather than on litigation, we remain determined to

• take our engaging and fact-filled traveling exhibit, the one we brought to Washington, on the road, sharing it with the public, shattering myths about wolves.
• bring the extraordinarily qualified and distinguished members of our Advisory Board together at a wolf conference, to share their knowledge, working toward mutually agreeable solutions. 
• continue our successful and informative multimedia presentations for schools, universities, museums and other venues, personally presented by Jim and Jamie Dutcher.
• work with livestock producers to implement traditional and innovative non-lethal practices that minimize conflicts between livestock and wolves or other large carnivores.
• run more of our fact-filled and honest Q-and-A-format advertisements, targeting Western communities, countering misinformation and working to tip the scales where rumor trumps fact. 
• continue to share important information with wildlife managers and elected officials in the states that are now managing wolves, and to those in federal offices, showing our unyielding vigilance while sharing evidence and facts about wolves.
• enhance our website, continuing to provide fast-moving e-bulletins and  e-newsletters, while keeping our popular Facebook page energetic and informative.

For Fans of Wolves and the Sawtooth Pack

Through three films and three books, the stories of the Sawtooth Pack have shown people throughout the world what it means to be a wolf. Most importantly, for a wolf that means being a member of its pack, its family.   

Please click here to enjoy stories of the Sawtooth Pack. 

When we look into the mirror, we see in the reflection our own social nature and a being that cares for its own, devoted to family, with a strong desire for companionship. When we look at our loyal dogs, we see exactly those same traits and, though we may not always realize it, what we see in our dogs is a wolf. DNA research has revealed that all dogs came from wolves, not from coyotes nor any other canine. The bond we have with our dogs is not at all unlike the bond they share with other members of their pack. We are two social hunters whose paths crossed long ago and whose futures became inexorably intertwined, as we have seen, both for better and for worse. 

The lessons the wolves of the Sawtooth Pack taught all of us now stand to test our collective humanity as we are poised to determine what future we will allow for wolves.  

From our book, Wolves at Our Door, we have adapted stories about the various spirited and wonderful characters that made up the Sawtooth Pack. They were individuals with fiercely distinct personalities, each with an important role to play within their family. As they have always been, the wolves of the Sawtooth Pack are the foremost ambassadors for their kind, building a bridge of understanding between their world and ours.