The lethal control action on several members of the Stanley Pack is still on-going according to today's Challis Messenger, even though no more sheep or cow calves have been killed.

As of Monday Brailsford's sheep were still in the Fourth of July Creek area eating the scant remaining grass. I recently toured the area and saw his sheep down near the highway in the sagebrush. The entire Sawtooth Valley is getting to look pretty "moth-eaten" (actually livestock eaten) because of the dry summer and the long grazing season which has not been terminated early as in many other parts of Idaho. Lynne Stone of the Boulder-White Clouds Council told me the cattle on private lands are usually moved out of the cold Stanley Basin and Sawtooth Valley area when the first heavy snows threaten.

The Messenger reported "Last week protesters associated with the Boulder White Clouds Council did interfere with WS field staff operations. The Custer County Sheriff's Office was notified of protesters confronting trappers on Saturday. Graves [of Wildlife Services] said it amounted to a minor verbal confrontation after protesters stopped trappers. Then, on Saturday an airplane buzzed trappers at work. Graves said they got the identification numbers on the airplane and turned it over to the sheriff's office for further action."

According to Lynne Stone of the Boulder-White Clouds Council, she and her wolf field staff are trying to get a photograph of the trappers bringing out a dead wolf. She also said that efforts to keep Brailsford's sheep and the wolves separated by use of her team were rebuffed.

Six members of the Stanley Pack are radio-collared. The pack consists of 12-13 adults or sub-adults and six pups, which should now weigh about 50-60 pounds. Meanwhile, the new Whitehawk Pack has expanded its territory to include much of what the Stanley Pack used to claim as theirs--the Marsh Creek area to the north of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Beginning in 1999, the Stanley Pack moved its territory south from Stanley Basin to the Sawtooth Valley and the western slope of the White Cloud Mountains.

Update 9-22: Stone told me that there were no protestors associated with her organization interfering with WS field operations. She said the only person there was herself and two independent film makers driving up and down the Valley Road (the dirt road on the east side of the Sawtooth Valley), nor did BWCC have any association with any airplane that may have overflow the trappers.

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