Federal wildlife services and Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials have joined forces to kill wolves in the Clearwater Region for the third year in a row.
The Lewiston Tribune reports that elk herds have been struggling in the remote country for nearly two decades.
Wildlife officials did not provide details on the operation, which they had planned to keep secret until it was complete. But an environmental group called Defenders of Wildlife announced the action in a news release and asked U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to stop it.
Defenders of Wildlife at Boise member Suzanne Stone says the decision was based on "Idaho's extreme anti-wolf politics."
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Clearwater also condemned the action.