Idaho Wolf Depradation Control Board

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is rolling out a new way to estimate the number of wolves in the state using a genetics-based statistical model.

About a third of all wolf kills in Idaho in the last year would be prohibited going forward, under a court order issued in March.

The Wolf Depredation Control Board will contract with two groups of producers through a new pilot program that will reimburse them for killing wolves preying on their livestock. In October, the board approved five agreements but three were later found out to not be valid.

The Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board recently approved agreements with ranchers to kill wolves for the protection of livestock. Some of the agreements say efforts will include shooting wolves from helicopters or planes on Forest Service land.

Wildlife Services investigated fewer instances of wolves killing livestock and found fewer depredations, too.

The Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board says its new approach to culling wolves is more targeted to areas with high risk to livestock and wildlife.

“[The wolves] didn’t consume anything,” Rancher Frank Shirts said in a press release from the IRRC. “The sheep just suffocated in the pileup and died. We work to make things good for those sheep every day, so it’s a shame to lose them.”

The board – which pays a federal and a state agency, and now potentially private contractors, to kill wolves – said the collars are primarily to aid with responding to livestock depredations.

The Wood River Wolf Project is a well-known project that uses non-lethal methods to prevent livestock depredations. But it's an outlier in Idaho, which has favored greatly expanding hunting and trapping opportunities to decrease depredations.

A new Idaho law could kill 90% of the state’s wolf population. The Idaho Legislature easily passed the bill — which was signed into law by Gov. Brad Little. Idaho Matters speaks a wolf advocate to get her perspective.