With the recent focus on the bill introduced by Idaho Representative Mike Simpson--the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Area--which would designate some Wilderness in the Boulder, White Clouds, and Herd Creek Highlands areas (as well as a lot of other stuff good and bad), I have received queries for an update on wolves in the area.

Folks will remember that wolf packs have established themselves repeatedly on both sides of the White Cloud Mountains―the Sawtooth Valley side on the west and the East Fork of the Salmon River on the east. These packs have all been eventually scattered or eliminated by government control actions on behalf of livestock. However, new packs form because it is wolf habitat and probably has been for thousands of years.

Most recently the Galena Pack formed on the west side and denned near the same location as the Whitehawk Pack and the Stanley packs of old. This is their second year, and it has been one without the controversy of years past. None of the pack has been controlled, but one wolf was found dead and is under legal investigation. Folks may recall there were probably repeated attempts to poison this pack, and unless the dead wolf under investigation was poisoned, the poisoner(s) killed pet dogs instead. The pack did reportedly go after and maybe kill some sheep herding dogs in Pole Creek this summer, but there were no livestock known to been killed.

On the east side of the White Clouds, the new Castle Peak Pack lost its much-celebrated alpha male B2M last winter of natural causes. Story B2 was one of the oldest wild wolves on record.  One other member of his pack had been radio collared, but the young wolf's signal disappeared last winter too, and the pack was lost for tracking purposes.

Nevertheless, at the current time there have been a number of observation of 2 groups of wolves in the general area of the East Fork of the Salmon (the major drainage on the east side of the White Clouds).  There is a group of 5 or 6 and another group of three. These may well be the Castle Peak Pack, or perhaps not.

It would not surprise me if they kill a few livestock and get "controlled" as have two other packs in the drainage in the past. If they are, wolves will return again and again and again.

One good thing about Representative Simpson's bill is that it provides a lot of money for voluntary buyout of grazing allotments in the East Fork and a number of other nearby central Idaho areas. Given the amount of wildlife present even under the present conditions of overgrazing, it is exciting to think of the wildlife possibilities if the area becomes cattle and sheep-free.

This is not an endorsement of the bill because it has major problems, especially a big public land giveaway to Custer County in the Capehorn Meadows area (actually Dry Creek) for a huge subdivision that would devastate the elk herd and maybe the scenery. There are Wilderness boundary problems and more precious public land giveaways.