Monday, August 7, 2000

NEWS RELEASE
Stanley Wolf Pack Peril Continues -- Wolf Advocates Block Road in Pole Creek

      At daybreak today, eight wolf advocates stood across Pole Creek Road in the White Cloud Mountains, and temporarily delayed wolf trapping crews who are trying to catch and remove the Stanley Wolf Pack.

      "We have worked hard this summer to save the Stanley Wolf Pack and to keep sheep flocks and wolves separate," said Boulder-White Clouds Council (BWCC) spokesperson Jeanne Liston. "Agencies managing wolf recovery are ignoring our offers of help and failed to notify us of plans to trap and remove the Stanley Wolf Pack, so we went to Pole Creek at dawn for answers."

      At Pole Creek, it first appeared that Wildlife Service trapper (formerly Animal Damage Control) Jeff Ashmead had no interest in talking to the eight people, many who were holding signs with messages that included: "Move the Sheep, Not the Wolves", "Keep the Wolves Here", and others. Ashmead roared around the group, through sagebrush and lodgepole pines, and only stopped after BWCC Director Lynne Stone refused to move and he had the choice to run over her with his Dodge Ram pick-up truck, or not. He halted with her hands planted on the vehicle's hood.

      A fifteen-minute conversation followed and some confusion over the on-going wolf trapping was diminished. Ashmead told the group to contact U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Boise for more answers. Unfortunately, USFWS' new wolf coordinator, Carter Niemeyer, won't be on the job until late August.

      After Ashmead left the group to go check wolf traps, two pick-up trucks with Nez Perce trapping crews arrived. More dialogue followed with wolf advocates stressing the solution was to move the sheep, not the wolves. The tribe employees assured the protesters they were "just following orders" and urged the group to call Curt Mack, Nez Perce wolf coordinator. Mack has not returned BWCC's phone calls.

      It was a sheep rancher's refusal to move his band of sheep from the Stanley Wolf Pack's prime territorywhich started the latest uproar over wolves in Central Idaho. Three sheep were killed by wolves last week deep in the Pole Creek drainage. Now, according to a USFWS memo (attached below) issued Friday, August 4, government and Nez Perce wildlife trappers are using leghold traps to catch and remove as many of the 14-member Stanley Wolf Pack as possible. The memo states that any adults and subadults trapped will be relocated , but the pack's four-month old pups will be radio-collared and left behind.

      "There's a simple solution to this problem," says Richard Waligorski, of the Boulder-White Clouds Council's (BWCC) wolf pack monitoring team. "Move the sheep. Not the wolves. The wolves live here year-round. The sheep are only in this canyon for a few weeks."

      In addition, Waligorski says the band needs more guard dogs which would help deter predators like wolves. BWCC has offered to help guard the flock, and obtain free Great Pyrenees dogs for the flock's owner, William Brailsford, but has been turned down.

      "The logical step would have been to move the sheep band out of Pole Creek onto safer ground," says Lynne Stone, BWCC's Executive Director. "Unfortunately, and perhaps tragically for the Stanley Wolf Pack, Brailsford and the agencies in charge acted to magnify the risk to the wolves. This is like putting a lamb chop on your doorstep and expecting your dog to ignore it."

      "Wolves are family animals. Trapping and removing members of the Stanley Pack, especially the alpha pair (leaders of the pack and parents of the wolf pups) would shred the wolf pack's family structure," says Jeanne Liston, wolf advocate, Ketchum. "If the alpha pair is trapped and removed, the pups are at grave risk."

      According to a memo by Jeri Wood, USFWS, Boise, all the wolves trapped will be removed and relocated, except this year's pups which will be radio collared and released. However, Liston says this is likely to be signing a death warrant for these young pups which are just learning to hunt.

      "Four-month old wolf pups who have been orphaned by USFWS will not be able to hunt on their own. These pups could prey on sheep which are easier to catch than elk, a wolf's normal prey. The pups could end up being shot. We urge the USFWS to rethink their cruel and inhumane management direction," says Liston.

      Trapping starting Thursday night, August 3rd, after a conference call by the three agencies managing wolf reintroduction: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Boise; the Nez Perce tribe of north Idaho, and Wildlife Services. In order to trap wolves along one of the White Cloud Mountain's busiest access roads, these agencies persuaded Sawtooth Forest Supervisor Bill LeVere to close six miles of Pole Creek canyon road. The closure could last a week, through August 10. Pole Creek road is the main gateway to Castle Peak and Chamberlain Basin Lakes, Washington Basin, Champion Lakes, Germania Creek, and Deer Lakes.

      Supervisor LeVere's closure order is serious. A posted sign says the penalty for using Pole Creek road past the Grand Prize trailhead includes a potential $5,000 fine and up to six months in jail.

      "We question whether this closure is legal," says Waligorski. "We are continuously told by the three agencies running the wolf reintroduction program, that they cannot alter any on-going land use activity -- that's why they and the Sawtooth National Forest refuse to tell the sheepman to move his sheep to save the wolves. Yet, the Forest Service, without hesitation and hiding behind a "public safety" smokescreen closed Pole Creek for a week when Jeff Ashmead, a government trapper, requested it."

      "The real reason for the road closure is to prevent the public from seeing the misery caused by leg hold traps on these magnificent wolves," says Stone.

      Waligorski is also concerned about sloppy husbandry practices at the sheep camp. He visited the sheep camp on Thursday night in Germania Creek prior to the road closure and found two dead sheep which had been killed by the herders. One sheep was laying with its throat cut, stomach split open and entrails exposed, and had been fed on by the herd dogs. Another slaughtered lamb was hanging in a tree. According to Waligorski, wolves can smell these dead sheep for miles and be attracted to the camp. BWCC says they want USFWS to investigate whether the human-killed sheep attracted wolves in the first place. The 1994 final legal rule of wolf introduction prohibits baiting or attracting wolves.

      "Once again in Central Idaho, we're seeing the wolf reintroduction program demonstrate that it's a wolf control program," says Waligorski. "Apparently destroying three packs in eight months wasn't enough, now USFWS, Wildlife Services and the Nez Perce tribe is going after the Stanley Wolf Pack to appease one sheepman. We were afraid this would happen and we've worked all summer to try and prevent it. We visited these sheepherders frequently once they came over Galena Pass into the Salmon River watershed and offered to help. Our help was rejected by both the agencies in charge and the flock's owner."

      Liston adds, "Unless agencies and stockmen stop expecting wolves to change, and start changing their own attitudes, our wolf packs appear to be doomed. The American public who largely supports wolf reintroduction should be outraged and call the USFWS, the Nez Perce tribe, and elected officials in support of wolves and ask to save the Stanley pack."

      In June, Boulder-White Cloud Council volunteers helped guard another sheepman's flock in Fisher Creek, after the sheep had been moved to within a few miles of the Stanley Wolf Pack's Rendezvous Site where they were raising their pups. That herd had five Great Pyrenees dogs which helped deter the wolves. Brailsford's flock in Pole Creek has none. The Fisher Creek situation ended when the sheep band was moved to safer ground in the Sawtooth Valley.

      Wolves in Central Idaho have had a rocky road in the past year. USFWS has order the aerial gunning, or trapping and relocating of three packs since last fall including the White Cloud, Twin Peaks and Jureano wolf packs.

      BWCC has been told by Nez Perce personnel that any wolves caught in traps will be drugged, transported in metal cages and hauled by vehicle to north Idaho mountains.

For more information call Boulder-White Clouds Council, 726-8262.

To stand up for your rights and the wolves, call the Sawtooth National Recreation area at 208-727-5000. You can also call the Sawtooth National Forest at 208-737-3200, leave a message or try to talk to the Forest Supervisor.

Please don't email Ralph because he will not be able to answer.

Update August 8

Here are 2 news article links concerning Wolf Advocates and the Stanley Pack.
I know the titles are the same, but they are 2 different articles, from 2 different newspapers.

Wolf advocates challenge government trappers, The Tribune
Wolf advocates challenge government trappers, by By N.S. Nokkentved, The Times News.