Wildlife and People

Dehydrating California, Or What’s That Smelt?

Note: The follow excerpts are from an excellent synopsis of the Delta smelt catastrophe. Please visit the link to read the entire piece.

The California Water v. Delta Smelt War

by Procrustes, The Real Barack Obama, February 21, 2009 [here]

… In 2007, a federal judge ruled state and federal pumps sending some 6 million acre-feet of delta water south to Kern County and other users each year could wipe out the endangered smelt, a tiny silver fish. The court ruled pumping had to be curtailed by about a third until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could weigh in on the problem.

On Monday, the federal agency submitted a 400-page “biological opinion” to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on the effects of pumping by the Federal Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project. The agency concluded pumping was “likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the delta smelt (right) and adversely modify its critical habitat,” and offered a plan to mitigate damage.

The plan would keep current restrictions in place, and even more limits could kick in under certain conditions. Further cuts would be triggered in a variety of scenarios, including limited rainfall during key periods in the fish’s spawning cycle.

Jim Beck, general manager of the Kern County Water Agency, which contracts for water on behalf of agricultural, municipal and industrial water districts in Kern, said “Implementing the plan would reduce water supplies from San Diego to San Jose by 20 to 30 percent on average, but up to 50 percent in some years.”

As always, this is not the end of the story. Other water districts, which “have long argued that pumping isn’t the real culprit in the smelt’s demise,” are “gearing up for a fight.”

Invasive species, pollution and greater municipal and industrial uses of delta water are important factors that have not been given enough attention, said Robert Kunde, assistant engineer manager for the Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water Storage District.

“There are a number of good reasons to believe that even if State Water Project pumps were cut entirely, the delta smelt may very well go extinct,” Kunde said.

Al Donner, assistant field supervisor for the Sacramento field office of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said all that has been looked at, but pumping cannot be discounted.

“The indices that track the smelt show the last couple of years, they’ve been at their lowest numbers ever,” he said. “The species clearly is in trouble.”

Back in June 2008, the Bakersfield paper reported on the second year of drought problems for farmers who once grew such products as cotton, pistachios, almonds and alfalfa.

Faced with too little rain and restricted pumping to protect an endangered fish, farmers and ranchers in and around Kern County are facing tough choices. In a typical year, 850,000 acres are irrigated, according to the Kern County Water Agency.

This year, about 45,000 of them will be idle at a cost of $46 million. In addition, 100,000 acres will be “underirrigated,” causing a $59 million loss.

Also in June 2008, the Bakersfield paper reported that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was “further shrinking the amount of water allocated to farmers subject to the Central Valley Project contract, which regulates water use on many farms in the Kern County area.” …

On July 10, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service changed the status of the “critically imperiled delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) from threatened to endangered” under the federal Endangered Species Act. However, the Bay Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Natural Resources Defense Council had “petitioned the Service in 2006 requesting a change in the federal listing. The finding is 25 months late, and a final listing determination is already 13 months overdue.”

“We are seeing a cascading series of crashing Delta fish populations – delta smelt, longfin smelt, chinook salmon, steelhead trout, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail, striped bass – the warning bells are ringing loud and clear,” said Jeff Miller with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The ecological collapse of the Delta threatens more than just our native fish since millions of people depend on the Delta for drinking water, agriculture, and fishing.”

See also:

USFWS Delta Smelt Recovery Site [here]

Shutting off the water pumps to save delta smelt unwarranted [here]

Food Grows Where Water Flows [here]

Schwarzenegger declares Calif. drought emergency [here]

Montanans Object to Tactics Used to Suppress HJ 26

News Release - DecideToVote.com, 27 Feb 2009

MISSOULA - Citizens across Montana are placing 30-second radio spots today in protest over handling of House Joint Resolution 26 by the Montana House of Representatives. Prepared ads criticize Democrat leadership in the House for attempting to violate House rules by denying a public hearing on HJ 26. Ads also criticize House Democrats for voting against HJ 26 on a party-line vote.

HJ 26 reasserts Montana sovereignty reserved to the state in Article II, Section 2 of the Montana Constitution, and in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In that regard, HJ 26 is similar to measures that are currently working in the legislatures of nearly 30 states across the U.S. Perhaps the first of these to be introduced was in New Hampshire, although the Oklahoma House of Representatives just passed a similar measure by a substantial vote margin.

In Montana, citizens are concerned about a possible move by Congress to cut off highway funds unless Montana caves in and accepts the federal Real ID, an idea rejected unanimously by the 2007 Montana Legislature and Governor Schweitzer. Montanans are also concerned about a likely wave of new gun control laws being proposed in Congress. One such proposed law, H.R. 45, would, if passed, make any person possessing a firearm a federal felon unless that person applied for and obtained a federal license to possess firearms. Montanans could not even apply for the required license because a Real ID is required to apply, and Montana has rejected Real ID.

HJ 26 addresses these issues and more. The radio spots that Montana citizens are placing across Montana are available from:

http://www.decide2vote.com/

This effort is distributed and not being organized by any particular organization, although several Montana organizations have picked up on the idea and are asking members and friends to place the ads locally with radio stations. People placing the ads want the public to know who is responsible for attempting to thwart the progress of HJ 26 in the Legislature.

Anyone with questions about this issue should look up HJ 26 on the Legislature’s Website and should contact their local legislators or their local radio station.

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Note: see Restoring the 10th Amendment [here]

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Wolves Kill People Too

An urban myth often cited by wolf advocates is that wolves do not attack people. That myth is promoted despite a long and bloody history to the contrary.

Will Graves is the author of Wolves in Russia: Anxiety Through the Ages [here, here], a book that details one national history of wolf attacks on humans.

Wolf attacks are not a thing of the past, however. T.R. Mader of the Abundant Wildlife Society of North America has compiled a record of more recent occurrences [here]. Bruce Hemming of Pro Save The Human Species has also posted a list of wolf attacks on people [here].

In Saskatchewan 22-year-old engineering student Kenton Carnegie was attacked, killed and partially eaten by wolves on November 8, 2005 [here, here]. In 2006 a wolf attacked six people, including several young children, in Lake Superior Provincial Park near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario [here].

A number of wolf attacks that have occurred already this year are described at Wolf Crossing:

Wolf pack kills woman [here]

Wolf Attack Kills Boy Jan 18 2009 Russia [here]

Wolf Kills Man, Injures Several [here]

Wolves frequently attack domestic dogs. Last Wednesday in Ashton, Idaho a pack of nine wolves mauled a Labrador retriever [here].

Dr. Valerius Geist, PhD. wrote a guide for protecting yourself and your family from wolves, When do wolves become dangerous to humans? [here]. If you live in an area with wolves, please take the time to read this important safety guide.

Wolves are not afraid of people. They hunt and eat people and have done so since time immemorial [here].

Wolves are not in danger of going extinct. It is unconscionable beyond measure that governments (federal and state) have dumped these killer predators in our neighborhoods.

The Best Wolf Websites

The following websites feature data and reports from citizen groups, wildlife agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, top wolf biologists, and news sources from around the region to dispel myths about wolves in the West.

Wolf Crossing [here]

Wolf Watch [here]

Wolf Bites [here]

Wildlife and People [here]

Save Our Elk [here]

Pro Save the Human Species [here]

Black Bear Blog [here]

Visitors to these sites can learn about the natural history, biology, and population dynamics of wolves and their various prey, including deer, elk, sheep, cattle, horses, and domestic dogs. The sites also provides data compiled about depredation rates on livestock and assess the impacts of wolves on hunting in regions of the West.

Warning: a coalition of radical environmental groups has launched a public information campaign, using newspaper, radio, and banner ads in select western communities to advocate other websites which do not tell the truth about wolves. Those ads began running in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming this week. Please do not be fooled by those ads.

For accurate, unbiased, and up-to-date information on wolves, we recommend the listed sites, not phony knock-off sites designed to perpetuate propagandistic lies about wolves.

$740 Million Goes to States for Fish and Wildlife Projects

U.S. Fish & Wildlife News Release [here]

Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today more than $740.9 million will be distributed to the fish and wildlife agencies of the 50 states, commonwealths, the District of Columbia, and territories to fund fish and wildlife conservation, boater access to public waters, and hunter and aquatic education. These Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program funds come from excise taxes and import duties on sporting firearms, ammunition, archery equipment, sportfishing equipment, electric outboard motors, and fuel taxes attributable to motorboats and small engines. … [more]

Note that the money comes FROM hunters and fishermen and goes TO something OTHER THAN management of game animals and game fish. That is known is the parlance as bait-and-switch, or more plainly, yet another gummit ripoff.

For more information on this issue please see:

Ripping Off Idaho Hunters and Fishermen [here]

Corruption, Featherbedding, and Looting the Idaho Treasury [here]

The High Costs of Wolves [here]

Secret Meetings, Wolves, Missing Money, and the Next Possible Director of US Fish and Wildlife Service [here]

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Endangered species listings lack solid science

by Matthew A. Cronin, Ph.D., Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, February 22, 2009 [here]

Governor Sarah Palin and the Alaska Legislature were criticized for opposing the Endangered Species Act listings of beluga whales in Cook Inlet and polar bears. In these articles, ESA advocates imply the listings are based on definitive science. They are not. Gov. Palin and her chief of staff, Mike Nizich, have capably justified the state’s positions.

Animals considered under ESA are not necessarily endangered with extinction. Polar bears were listed even though worldwide numbers have increased during the past 40 years and most populations have not declined. Of the 19 populations identified in the ESA documents, five were declining, two were increasing, five were stable and seven were unknown. Polar bears were considered endangered because of global warming and summer sea ice models. Whether polar bears are endangered at this time depends on one’s view of the model predictions.

Models also were used for the belugas, so it also is not definite they are endangered with extinction. The number of whales declined from 653 in 1994 to 375 in 2008, but have increased during the past six years. Model results are predictions, not facts, and should be considered hypotheses to be tested with new information.

Some ESA species are not even species because the ESA can apply to species, subspecies or “distinct population segments.” The terms “subspecies” and “distinct population segment” are not rigorously defined, so almost any fish and wildlife population can qualify for ESA listing. Subspecies and distinct population segments are simply fish and wildlife populations with distinguishing characteristics in a geographic area. Examples of these categories include entire species (polar bears), subspecies (Pacific walrus) and populations (belugas in Cook Inlet).

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CRP Joins Siskiyou County Resolution Against Dam Removal

From the Klamath Bucket Brigade [here]

The California Republican Party,

Recognizes, the importance of the hydropower facilities of J. C. Boyle, Copco I, Copco II, and Irongate on the Klamath River to California’s renewable energy goals. That Copco I, Copco II, and Irongate Dams and located in Siskiyou County. That these dams generate 169 megawatts of emission free energy for 70,000 homes, provide flood protection, and a stable water supply for migrating fish, agricultural and community needs,

Recognizes, that the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted for a resolution opposing removal of dams in the Klamath River Basin,

Recognizes, that all impacts to the Klamath Basin, Siskiyou County and the citizens of Siskiyou County must be openly reviewed by authorities with jurisdiction without compromise of a bias resolve to dam removal,

Recognizes, the five solutions proposed by the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors: construction of the Long Lake Project in Klamath County, Oregon; proposed Clear Creek to Deer Creek (Hart) Bypass for fish passage around Irongate, Copco I and II, implementation of wild fish propagation through ARED program; study of C. Shasta parasite disease effecting 90% mortality of juvenile salmonoid migration to the Pacific Ocean; initiate study of ocean habitat conditions,

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Conservation Groups Urge Obama to Delist Wolves

From Wolf Crossing [here]

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation News Release, Feb 7, 2009 [here]

MISSOULA, Mont.—President Obama this week will receive a letter initiated by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and 32 partner conservation organizations urging removal of federal protections for specific populations of gray wolves.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar also will receive a copy of the letter.

“Together, the signees represent millions of America’s most active conservationists. We’re hopeful that our impressive coalition will help influence President Obama to clear the way for individual states to manage their wolf populations,” said David Allen, president and CEO of the Elk Foundation.

The Elk Foundation continues to voice its longstanding support for delisting wolves under the Endangered Species Act, enabling state-based management. In December, RMEF joined with 18 other groups urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. In July, a judge sided with activists who challenged federal data showing that wolf populations are fully recovered in the northern Rockies. An injunction halted delisting and drew criticism from the Elk Foundation.

Allen urged Elk Foundation members and others to make their voices heard individually by contacting their state and federal legislators.

Here’s the full content of the letter:

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Mountain Lion Control in Nevada

The following appeared in the SF Chronicle Sunday:

by Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle, February 22, 2009 [here]

Mountain lions vs. deer: In Nevada, deer populations have plummeted from 240,000 to 108,000 in the past 10 years. Scientists attribute the decline largely to mountain lion predation. So Ken Mayer, former big game coordinator in California and now the director of Nevada Department of Wildlife, has ordered a major program to shoot mountain lions.

The intent is not to eliminate predators, Mayer said, but rather to reduce them so deer herds can rebuild. He said the program will be based on wildlife science and the predator-prey relationship.

Some people think that the relationship between mountain lions and deer is self-governing. So when the deer are about wiped out, the mountain lion population then naturally goes down to form a “balance” and the deer herd will bounce back.

That is not what happens. When there are few deer left to eat, the mountain lions then wander into the backyards of homes and ranches and eat whatever they can catch, then return afield to clip off the fawns. Their favorite food other than deer appears to be house cats, but they’ll take dogs, sheep, llamas, calves and about anything else when hungry enough, including people occasionally.

Many wildlife experts believe we need Mayer back in California to do the same thing here. In the past 50 years, the population of deer in California has dropped from an estimated high of 2 million to fewer than 450,000, because of mountain lion predation and habitat loss in the Sierra foothills.

The SF Chron story is a little bit disingenuous. There has been no ban on killing mountain lions in Nevada. The change made by NDOW was to “fulfill the objective harvest.”

The objective harvest has been 349 mountain lions per year. That’s the number of lions that NDOW biologists think necessary to remove to sustain deer populations. However, over the last six years only an average of 160 lions per year were killed. As a result, the lion population has surged and the deer population has crashed.

NDOW Director Ken Mayer would like to see the objective harvest achieved; that is, to make sure that 350 or so lions per year are removed.

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Restoring the 10th Amendment

by Marshall Sage

“Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.” Tom Remington of Black Bear Blog has written an excellent four-part history of wolves in post-modern Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia [here, here, here, here]. We only have to look north to our neighbors in Canada and Alaska to see what wolves are capable of when not controlled.

We are witnessing and living with out of control wolf populations now in Idaho and western Montana. To be fair to the wolves, they are just doing what they were created to do. We must focus our ire on their advocates who got the federal government to “re-introduce the Canadian Grey Wolf into our states protected them under the ESA”.

Until we realize that the wolf is only a tool used by the environmental extremists to attack capitalism, property rights, individual rights, and the cultures of big game hunting and ranching, we are fighting a loosing battle. We must realize that our real adversaries are the environmental extremists who are pursuing an anti-capitalist/socialist/Marxist agenda.

Environmental extremism got its first taste of power with the successful DDT hoax which led to the formation of the EPA and the ESA. Since then they have used the spotted owl to destroy the US forest products industry, the bull trout to limit access into the back country (travel on logging trails creates siltation which endangers bull trout), Sage Grouse to stop oil/gas exploration and production, and wolves to eliminate elk and deer for hunting and force ranchers into economic hardships from livestock losses. If you think hard enough you will think of other examples where the environmental extremists have used plants and animals with the protections of the EPA or ESA to limit or stop economic activity or limit people’s access or freedoms.

To break the environmental extremists monopoly on power under the EPA and the ESA, we must develop and implement a strategy that takes away their advantage of centralized political power and money. We can do this by restoring the 10th Amendment to it’s original intent. If the environmental extremists had to get their agenda approved by each state legislature, they would be hard pressed to prevail in more than 10 states.

What can we do? Get active and pressure your elected state representatives to pass legislation putting the federal government on notice that only regulations and federal laws in compliance with the 10th Amendment will be honored or enforced. The sovereignty of the states to manage their wildlife and natural resources will not be compromised by the federal government. Encourage a states convention on the 10th Amendment to create a coalition of states demanding their rights under the 10th Amendment.

Make support for the 10th Amendment a litmus test for political support of all state representatives. It took years of incrementalism for the federal government to take away much of our state’s sovereignty and we won’t overcome that with out a long, hard fight. If we get started now, we might be able to make the 10th Amendment a national issue in the 2010-2016 elections. Most states will use common sense if they are responsible for EPA and ESA actions in their states, because the elected and appointed officials will be accountable to the voters of the state. As it stands now, we are subject to the ideology and political views of a few who control the EPA and USFWS.

“United we stand but divided we fall.”

Wolf-Killed Elk - Winter 2009

Note: the linked report contains graphic photographs of wolf-killed elk. We have chosen not to post the photographs directly. Last year Mr. Alder submitted and we posted a similar report on the elk of the Lochsa River [https://westinstenv.org/wildpeop/2008/03/04/lochsa-river-elk-report/].

by Steve Alder, Chairman of the Clearwater Chapter of Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife Idaho

The following pictures [here, 2.5 MB] were taken during the beginning of February 2009. The location of the predation was along the North Fork of the Clearwater River in North Central Idaho.

Historically the elk had a difficult time in heavy winters just to survive without the addition of the wolf in their ecosystem. During these rough winters, the elk are concentrated and forced into narrow canyons at lower elevations where they attempt to find adequate feed and struggle through the winter. During these winters, the elk are reduced to a small percentage of their traditional range and are very concentrated. The elk can be literally trapped in these narrow canyons during deep snow conditions as the snow prohibits the elk from escaping the wolf.

Another condition that hinders the elk from escape is the deep crusted snow after the snow thaws and freezes again. The elk’s hooves fall through the crusted snow allowing easy killing by the wolves. In past years, we have documented dozens of “surplus” or “Sport killed” elk that were just killed and uneaten. Now with the elk numbers at an all time low, we are observing less surplus killing than previously as the wolves are running out of their traditional prey base as the elk numbers in this region are declining so rapidly.

The saddest aspect of the kill involves the extraction of the unborn calf. Without exception over the many years of photographing wolf killed elk, we have never observed one cow elk that didn’t have the fetus removed. In fact we have found cow elk still alive with the fetus ripped out! After a cow elk is downed by the wolves, the first thing we have observed is that the wolves extract and eat the fetus. Sometimes they will take a bite out of a rear quarter but many times they will leave the remainder of the carcass until a later date. In essence each time a cow elk is killed, two elk are gone and calf recruitment ceases. A prominent Canadian wolf biologist verified this fetus extraction ritual a few years ago while I was researching this subject. At the time, IDF biologists denied these findings as false and unfounded and indicated that our wolves are not pulling fetuses. …

Tear Down Those Dams, Mr. Goober

In a hysteric vote today the Oregon Senate okayed Governor Ted “Raze the State” Kulongoski’s bizarre plan to tear down four dams on the Klamath River and charge electricity ratepayers the $4.5 billion tab for the demolition of their clean, safe hydropower plants.

Ore. lawmakers OK rate boost to remove dams

By BRAD CAIN Associated Press Writer, San Jose Mercury, 02/17/2009 [here]

SALEM, Ore.—A bill to impose a surcharge on PacifiCorp customers to pay for removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River was endorsed Tuesday by the Oregon Senate. The bill goes to the House.

State Senate advances Klamath dams removal bill

by Matthew Preusch, The Oregonian, Tuesday February 17, 2009, [here]

The state Senate passed a bill today to build a fund for removing four Klamath River dams with a surcharge on Oregon ratepayers.

Senate Bill 76 was approved 18 to 12 on largely partisan lines with Sen. Jason Atkinson of Central Point the only Republican voting yes.

The bill was introduced by Gov. Ted Kulongoski and is part of tentative dam removal agreement the governor signed in the fall with California, the federal government and Pacificorp, which owns the dams in question.

Funny thing, at the very same time President Barry “Messiah” Obama was signing a record $787 billion pork barrel bill that is targeted at, among other things, building more dams:

Transcript: Obama’s Remarks at Stimulus Bill Signing

Denver, CO, Feb 17, 2009 [here]

… Because of this investment, nearly 400,000 men and women will go to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, repairing our faulty dams and levees…

The ratepayers will foot that bill, too, and their children and grandchildren. We all will.

Tear them down, build them up, throw money away, “create” jobs, bankrupt the taxpayers, drain the economy, pour cement, jackhammer cement, run around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off — it’s all a three ring circus of absolute dunces.

We elected these idiots. We pay their salaries, and handsome salaries they are, too.

Wouldn’t it be better, and cheaper, if we paid our public “servants” to take long (permanent) vacations in Bermuda or Timbuktu, and kept them thousands of miles away from the vaunted Seats of Power? Put them someplace where they could do no harm?

Because harm is all they seem to be able to do.

New Site: News From the Salmon Front

W.I.S.E. is pleased to announced the addition of a new Commentary subsite: News From the Salmon Front [here].

News From the Salmon Front is written by W.I.S.E. Board Member, Portland attorney, and salmon expert James Buchal, author of The Great Salmon Hoax [here].

Please enjoy and learn. As is the case on the other W.I.S.E. commentary and news subsites, informative and polite comments are welcome.

The Montana Wolf Recovery Act

Montana State Senator Joe Balyeat has introduced Senate Bill 183 - 2009, the “Montana Wolf Recovery Act” for consideration by the Montana Legislature.

SB 183 will accomplish the following, if passed:

- Declare Montana authority for wildlife management and challenge federal authority to force wolves on Montana;

- Remove Montana from cooperation with the feds by voiding the cooperative management agreement between Montana and the feds and voiding the fed-driven Montana Wolf Management Plan;

- Declare that federal wolves are not in compliance with Montana wolf policy;

- Establish benchmarks that the feds must meet to bring federal wolves into compliance with Montana wolf policy; and

- Establish consequences for any period that federal wolves are not in compliance with Montana wolf policy.

The text of SB 183 is [here]. The stated purposes are to:

(1) prevent the decline of wild game animal populations in Montana because of wolf predation and preserve the heritage of harvesting those game animals for Montanans pursuant to Article IX, section 7, of the Montana constitution;

(2) protect the stockgrowers of Montana from economic loss because of wolf predation;

(3) provide for the health and safety of people working outdoors or engaged in outdoor recreation; and

(4) assert the rights of Montana pursuant to the 9th and 10th amendments to the United States constitution and Article I of the Montana constitution.

SB 183 establishes as State policy that the wolf population in Montana must be “at or below 150% of the target population of 150 wolves.” Further, the bill calls for the elimination of “breeding pair” as a “term or concept applied to quantification of gray wolf recovery or maintenance.”

SB 183 also prohibits the issuance of citations or arresting of persons for “taking a wolf on state or private property or possessing a wolf carcass or any parts of a wolf taken on state or private property” as long as wolves number more than the target population. The State will “reimburse reasonable costs and attorney fees to any Montana resident accused by the United States of illegally taking a wolf on state or private property.”

SB 183 also prohibits the Montana Fish and Wildlife Dept. from expending any state resources, including money and time, to implement or enforce any federal wolf policies as long as wolves number more than the target population.

Further explanation of SB 183 is [here].

A News Release from the Montana Shooting Sports Association regarding the Montana Wolf Recovery Act is [here].

The Wolf-Dogs of Yellowstone

Wolves have decimated the elk herds in Yellowstone Park [here], but that’s okay because Yellowstone wolves are wild animals in danger of extinction, whereas elk are totally expendable.

The USFWS tried to take wolves off the Endangered Species List last year [here], evidently because their scientists believe that Canadian gray wolves are not endangered [here, here, here, here]. But twelve enviro groups sued to put a halt to the delisting [here], and a federal judge agreed with them [here].

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy enjoined the delisting of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and put them back on the Endangered Species list because, in his a-scientific opinion, wolves need more “genetic exchange” [here]. If the entire country is not crawling with wolves, they might get inbred and retarded like European royalty, in the judge’s twisted view of world.

We wrote at the time:

The problem is that wolves breed like dogs, and with dogs, coyotes, and everything else dog-like. Genetic purity can only be maintained within limited populations. When wolves are allowed to roam all over, their genotype gets polluted with dog genes.

They become wolf-dogs, like in New Mexico, or wolf-otes, like in Minnesota.

Sure enough, a new study by a team of biologists and molecular geneticists from Stanford University, UCLA, Sweden, Canada and Italy has found that nearly half of North American wolves have dog genes already [here].

Biologists solve mystery of black wolves

UCLA Press Release, 5-Feb-2009

Why do nearly half of North American wolves have black coats while European wolves are overwhelmingly gray or white? The surprising answer, according to teams of biologists and molecular geneticists from Stanford University, UCLA, Sweden, Canada and Italy, is that the black coats are the result of historical matings between black dogs and wild gray wolves.

The research, federally funded by the National Science Foundation, appears Feb. 5 in the online edition of the journal Science and will be published later in the journal’s print edition.

The scientists used molecular genetic techniques to analyze DNA sequences from 150 wolves, about half of them black, in Yellowstone National Park, which covers parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. They found that a novel mutated variant of a gene in dogs, known as the K locus, is responsible for black coat color and was transferred to wolves through mating.

It is hard to imagine how genes could get transferred other than by mating, but we didn’t write the press release. The scientists could not find evidence that Yellowstone wolf-dogs had picked up the domestic genes recently, but if the proliferation desired by Judge Molloy and the Plaintiffs in the lawsuit is realized, more cross-fertilization with dogs is inevitable.

“The underlying assumption is that genes from one species will be contained and not enter another species on a massive scale; this may not be true,” [Dr. Robert] Wayne said. “There may be implications for genetically modified organisms.”

Implications? Genetically modified organisms? Wolf-dogs?

All the hoo-rah over wolves and it turns out they aren’t wolves after all!

Elk herds decimated, sheep and cattle slaughtered, rural residents beset with killer predators, state legislatures in an uproar, Fish and Game budgets cannibalized, and the damn wolves aren’t even pure wolves.

They’re wolf-dogs! It’s Save the Zebronkey [here, here] all over again.

The wildlife rights groups who wish to “save” a species (Earthjustice, Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Western Watersheds Project, and Wildlands Project) are gumming up the wildlife populations of an entire region with hybrid wolf-dogs!

The whole thing is a monumental fraud!

The wildlife species of choice (the wolf-dogs), to be protected no matter how much damage they do to other wildlife species, are not even wild; they’re feral!

Oh well. The monumental fraud will continue. Too many folks are too deeply invested in the proliferation of killer predator wolf-dogs. They hate everything else (people, elk, sheep, etc.) with such a burning passion that it does not matter to them what the killer predators are. As long as the slaughter continues, the wolf-dog lovers will be happy.

Slaughter, death, destruction, extirpation, mass suffering of man and beast; it’s all good.

Save the Wolf-dogs! Kill everything else.