Wolf management remains a hot-button issue with extremely passionate people on both sides of the debate. While we’ll never get everyone to agree on the correct course of action, I read a blog post today written by someone very close to the situation that sums it up very well.
Bryan and Vikki are trappers who run a remote trapline in northern British Columbia, Canada. They document their day-to-day life on the trapline through a fantastic blog called The Happy Trappers . Over the past five years, they’ve watched as wolves have decimated the area’s moose and goat populations. This year, they plan to trap wolves, a duty only trappers with registered traplines and some provincial biologists are allowed to partake in.
I’d encourage you to visit the blog and read the entire thing, but this section sums up the post and what I think is the general attitude of most hunters and trappers toward wolf management:
“WE DO NOT HATE WOLVES OR CONSIDER THEM EVIL. We just can not stand by and wait for the 40 year cycle to pass, for the population to balance once more. First the wolves over harvest the moose, goat bringing the levels very low. Then the wolves die off or move off to another area. Not only moose and goats are lost in this. The teachings to their young — the trail, the salt licks, where to go in big snow years. This is all learned in the 1st year with their mothers. So when the moose and mountain goats numbers are about down to nothing all this knowledge is gone. When ungulates are transplanted most fail from the lack of the knowledge about the area.
It is all about BALANCE…. Keep a healthy population of predators and prey
Bryan and Vikki also recently made a post on constructing snares for wolves. If you’re interested in that, check it out HERE.
I wish you the best in your efforts.
Balance and sanity needs to be considered over the Disneyland emotion showing these animals as cute and harmless cuddly little creatures. Not to be exterminated, but managed like any other species.
The reintroduction of the wolf throughout the US needs to be re-evaluated. They have reintroduced the same Canadian Grey Wolf as in BC – It’s not the same as what was here before. It’s not the same species – it’s like saying all Trout are the same species (Brook, Apache, Rainbow).. and look for yourselves on the differences between the Canadian Grey wolf other wolf species.