Mayor calls town limits ‘no-predator zone’
Sun Valley concerned about wolves entering town
By Ariel Hansen - Times-News, Friday, February 26, 2010 [here]
SUN VALLEY — A large audience Wednesday heard Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich do some howling about community concerns of wildlife within city limits.
Willich called for the Wood River Elk Trust II to quickly come up with a plan to feed elk on a ridge above the Elkhorn neighborhood of Sun Valley next winter, hoping they won’t then attract predators into the city.
The elk have not been fed by an organized group in three years, and last year wolves hunted them as they wandered through town. The wolves have not been present in the city this winter, which is attributed to the wolf hunting season launched last year.
Following a self-described “lecture” about the wildlife situation in Sun Valley, Willich took questions, but refused to take comments, on his proposal to have the elk trust present its plan to the Sun Valley City Council in two weeks.
“I’m finished with these town hall meetings, we’re moving to a solution,” Willich said. “The time for discussion is over.”
He said if the elk trust can’t resume feeding, or if the council fails to approve a resolution in support of their feeding, he will demand that Idaho Department of Fish and Game be more proactive. Several Fish and Game agents were in the audience.
“We’ll put you on notice that whenever there’s a predator around, you need to use whatever techniques to get the predators out of town,” Willich said, calling Sun Valley a “no-predator zone.”
Fish and Game Regional Supervisor Jerome Hansen said that’s already the department’s policy.
“We’ve got a document specifically developed to deal with urban large-animal conflicts. This is all about public safety,” he said. “Our guys are Johnny-on-the-spot.”
The department’s policy is to avoid feeding programs whenever possible, although they maintain feeding sites in other areas of the state, including nearby Warm Springs.
“Their plan to start up a feeding program (in Elkhorn) is an easy short-term solution, maybe, but I don’t think it’s the long-term solution,” Hansen said. “It takes a while (for the elk) to develop new patterns. It takes longer than we’ve had.”
He said he would prefer to find other solutions to keep the elk out of town, such as reducing the size of the herd and enhancing habitat in areas to attract the elk to areas not as close to homes, such as Parker and Independence gulches.
Willich said the City Council will take comments on March 11 on the elk trust’s plan. He said the council would likely offer moral, not monetary, support for a feeding plan.
I was thinking that there are already plenty of [two-legged] wolves living in and near Sun Valley, giddy with the bloodlust of tapping into ranchers’ lifeblood via the “Equal Access to Justice Act.” I’m just sayin’ … !
There are a few problems with the Mayor’s plan. Wolves can travel 20 miles or more overnight. Chumming them into a ridge above a subdivision is not likely to be effective. It’s sort of a reverse Pied Piper approach.
And the elk are already scattered far and wide, those that are left anyway. The wolves prowling around town are hunting other prey, since the elk are all used up. Sun Valley residents should study the concept of “human habituated.”
They should also study the concept of “hot lead deterrence” and “assured destruction that’s not mutual.”
Maybe live capture of wolves and shipping them to communities that appreciate them would work, such as San Francisco, Hollywood, and Wash D.C.
But it might be too late for Sun Valley to avoid karmic justice. What goes around comes around.