Roger Phillips: First wolf hunt will be a big test

Idaho is on the verge of having its first wolf hunting season, and I'm nervously hoping it goes well.

If all goes according to plan and a judge doesn't stop the hunt like last year, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission will set wolf quotas later this month and hunts will begin in September.

I've been fortunate to have a front-row seat in the grand wolf reintroduction theater. It has been a surreal blend of wildlife management and political maneuvering with plenty of propaganda from both sides of the blistering debate.

All that aside, the saga has been one in which humans shoved unwitting wolves into a boiling controversy in which they were often demonized for doing what nature designed them to do.

You can't begrudge a wolf for eating an elk any more than you can begrudge an elk for eating grass. Neither animal has many alternatives.

I am an avid hunter who has neither the intent nor the desire to kill a wolf. I drew my line in the sand decades ago. If I can't eat it, I won't hunt it.

I admit I haven't always been faithful to that. I've popped an occasional ground squirrel, but when it comes to big game, if it's not fit for the plate, I don't shoot it.

But I don't oppose hunters who will decide to pursue wolves when the season opens.

I know if we're going to continue hunting elk and leave an efficient predator like wolves unmanaged we're going to have problems with our elk herds - and we already are.

Statewide elk harvests have declined in recent years, and Idaho Fish and Game has strong evidence that wolves are preventing some depressed elk herds from recovering.

Idaho's elk population can only withstand so much hunting. Wolves and humans are competing for limited prey.

Wolves shouldn't replace hunters, and that was never the intent of reintroducing them.

It was known throughout the recovery process that wolves eventually would be hunted to keep their population in check.

So I understand the need for the hunts. But I also have fears, which I hope won't be realized.

I worry that frustrated hunters who blame wolves for killing or driving elk out of their favorite hunting places will take after them with a bloody vengeance, and I can see wolf carcasses paraded through town like the bodies of slain enemies.

That scene would give all hunters a black eye and play right into the hands of anti-hunters who want to stop wolf hunts indefinitely, and possibly permanently.

It also risks offending lots of non-hunters who have a tenuous tolerance for hunting and could tip them into the anti-hunting camp.

On the other hand, I think in the long run that hunting is going to benefit wolves and people.

It's going to give wolves a healthy fear of humans and hopefully make them less likely to attack livestock, people's pets or worse.

Animals without a fear of humans frequently cause problems, and when they are large, powerful carnivores, those problems can be tragic.

In 2005, a Canadian man was killed by a pack of wolves in Saskatchewan, which was the first documented case of wild, healthy wolves killing a human in North America.

We'd be naive to think it couldn't possibly happen here. It's unlikely but not impossible.

Maybe a few bullets whizzing over wolves' heads will make them think twice about getting too comfortable around people.

Wolf reintroduction has been an amazing thing to witness. Wolves have settled in Idaho and thrived beyond expectations. Wolf encounters are now pretty common.

Most people who spend time in the woods have either seen them, spotted their tracks or heard their hair-raising howls.

It's a primal sound that belongs in a wild, pristine state like Idaho.

I think the first hunting season is going to be a critical test for wolf hunters and Fish and Game.

It's up to them to prove they can conduct a hunt that will trim the overall numbers while leaving a sustainable population and remaining publicly palatable.

Let's hope they're up to the task.

Roger Phillips: 373-6615