Judge refuses to halt wolf trapping in Idaho wilderness
Source: Reuters
Judge refuses to halt wolf trapping in Idaho wilderness
BY LAURA ZUCKERMAN
SALMON, Idaho Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:08pm EST
(Reuters) - A district judge on Friday denied a request from conservationists to block Idaho's efforts to trap and kill two wolf packs targeted for eradication in a federally protected wilderness area for preying on elk prized by hunters.
The state Department of Fish and Game last month hired a trapper to eliminate the pair of wolf packs from the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho, where wolves were imported from Canada in the mid-1990s in a bid to reintroduce the species to the Northern Rockies.
The trapping program has become the latest flashpoint in a long-running controversy over wolf management in the region. State officials have not specified how many wolves are believed to make up the packs in question but said nine animals have been killed so far.
Gray wolves were placed under safeguards of the federal Endangered Species Act in 1974, after being hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction decades earlier throughout the continental United States.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/18/us-usa-wolves-idaho-idUSBREA0H03K20140118
