Gray Wolf Issues plus Food Forethought

Gray Wolf Issues plus Food Forethought

Gray Wolf Issues plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

 

Last week the Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted a rule that allows some pet and livestock owners to kill a wolf that is attacking their animals. The rule applies only to animal owners in the eastern one-third of the state, where the gray wolf is no longer protected under the federal Endangered Species Act due to successful recovery. The rule would not apply in Chelan County, or in the Methow Valley, where wolves are still protected. Congressman Doc Hastings says he agrees that the gray wolf needs to be delisted.

 

HASTINGS:The fact of being delisted means that the state then can manage the population. That’s happened in Idaho and that’s happened in Montana and I think it’s pending in Wyoming. but that is precisely how the process is supposed to work. What is so ludicrous in Washington State is that they are listed as threatened on one side of highway 97 and on the other side of highway 97 they are not listed. I know that wolves are very intelligent animals but I don’t think that they can read highway signs.

 

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has approved over $37-thousand in supplemental funding to five counties for non-lethal methods of preventing wolf depredation. Money will be spent on techniques that effectively reduce conflicts between wolves and livestock. Those techniques include bone pile removal, fladry, and the use of range riders.

 

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

 

The barricading and closing of national parks and monuments during the government shutdown has led to hundreds of ordinary citizens engaging in the act of “civil disobedience”; something many of them never would have thought of doing in their lifetime, that is until they were prevented from entering national parks, forest service sites, and open-air monuments by barricades, cones, and uniformed guards. Frankly, I can’t say that I blame them. If someone had tried to stop me from visiting the Lincoln Memorial a few years back they probably would have found themselves on the wrong side of a very sharp tongue lashing. Visits to national monuments are a once in a lifetime moment for many people who have perhaps traveled thousands of miles to get there, and once that opportunity has passed it’s gone for good. Does it really make any sense to have to pay uniformed guards to close and patrol open-air monuments and public lands that are leased to private entities that aren’t normally patrolled in the first place? The Obama administration warned Congress that it could and would make a government shutdown very painful. Problem is, it’s not being painful for the right people.

 

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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