Wolf "problem" hits home

County Commissioners met on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of declaring Mineral County a disaster area, which would give citizens the right to kill a wolf if it threatened people, livestock or big-game animals. This proposed resolution is patterned after a similar one drafted by commissioners in Idaho County, Idaho, which asked Gov. Butch Otter to allow wolves to be eradicated in north-central Idaho County by any means necessary.

Mineral County Attorney Shaun Donovan, after learning of the steps that the county is planning to take, presented the idea to commissioners on Wednesday. After Judge Molloy’s decision to re-list wolves took away the authority of the state to regulate wolves, Donovan said that the idea of the disaster declaration was “a novel idea.”

“Many of the justifications for the disaster declaration cited in the Idaho County Commissioners’ resolution — including the rebound of the wolf population, the negative impacts of wolves on elk and deer populations and the threats wolves pose to long standing livestock, recreational and other land uses — would seem to apply in Mineral County as well,” Donovan wrote in the letter.

Donovan told the commissioners he felt that the possibility of declaring the county a disaster area due to wolves was “worth a look.” Commissioner Clark Conrow agreed that it was time that the county step up and take some sort of action.

“We’ve discussed and we’ve discussed this. We’ve sent a few letters and we sit and we wait,” Conrow said. “Maybe it’s time we grab the rope, put it on the calf, pull hard and see what happens...wolves are a problem in Montana. Wolves are a problem in Mineral County.”

Donovan discussed with the commissioners that a large amount of groundwork would have to be done in putting together a similar resolution to that of Idaho. He said they would need to look into the disaster laws of Montana — figuring out what the statutes are, how they work and how they would be applicable.

“We would need something that makes sense both practically and legally,” Donovan said. “As we’re looking at this we’ll have to decide how much of an impact we need to have to reduce the negative impact to the community, recreation and elk population. I don’t know if we’ll need to completely eradicate them.”

Those in attendance at the meeting talked heavily on the three areas of community, recreation and elk population. Resident Sharon Patterson said that the “fear factor” is keeping people out of the woods.

“There’s a factor of fear here that’s keeping people from getting out into our woods,” Patterson said.  “I know one family that when they take a walk they take a stick, pepper spray and a pistol. To me, that’s not a fun walk. I used to do a lot of walking up Four Mile, but I’m not going to carry a pistol, pepper spray or a stick...We need to stand up and say were not going to tolerate this any longer.”

Jim Cox argued that the ruling to protect the wolves is “defrauding people of one of their resources (elk) that first belonged to them.” Donovan argued that many of the people in Mineral County don’t hunt just for the enjoyment, but rather for food to sustain themselves and their families.

Lance Jasper, Superior resident and an attorney who practices in Missoula, argued that if the federal government was going to allow the wolves to destroy the elk populations, thus destroying a way of life, then the people of Mineral County should be subsidized for their losses.

Jerry Stroot, who owns and operates Superior Meats, said that the processing of wild game is down 30 to 40 percent from normal.

“And it’s looking to get even worse,” Stroot said, noting that his business was a big portion of how he makes his living. “From the stories I’ve heard, people aren’t seeing or hearing any elk. I just don’t understand how one judge can decide what he thinks is right. This is not a very high-income area and so an elk is a big thing for people. (Elk is) meat for the freezer and it’s been ripped out from underneath us.”

Stroot went on to say that the destruction of the game populations by wolves is also affecting taxidermists and outfitters as well.

“It’s hitting everybody,” he said.

Donovan continued his argument and pointed out that the idea of reintroducing the wolves to put the environment back the way it was isn’t feasible.

“I assume the average person, even those that want an ecosystem close to a couple hundred years ago, don’t want a situation where wolves are making it impossible to live,” Donovan said. “...Putting the environment back in the shape it was 200 years ago isn’t scientifically possible. It is if we rolled up all the cities, highways and farms, but we’re not going to that. You can’t plug a species in that worked 200 years ago and figure it’ll go back to the way it is. That’s laughable. You have to do it carefully and measure it precisely or you end up with the situation we have here.”

Jasper encouraged the commissioners to get together with other counties, noting that there’s strength in numbers. Conrow and Commissioner Duane Simons agreed and said that they’d be contacting other counties to see how they feel and what their concerns are.

“I know that there’s interest,” Conrow said. “People in Mineral County are talking. I think we’ll get other people talking. The courts are what are destroying us. They destroyed the mining industry, the logging industry and we have one industry left and that’s recreation.”

At the end of the meeting, the commissioners gave the go ahead for Donovan to look into declaring a state of disaster in the county more closely and hoped to have more information available next week.