Dear HCN,
Apropos the item “Guides
may get guidelines” (HCN, 3/27/00: Guides may get guidelines),
Idaho, after long and mighty labors, has produced a draft “Wolf
Management Plan.” Among other bemusing provisions in the plan is
one which would provide monetary compensation to guides and
outfitters for “economic harm caused individual outfitting
businesses by decreasing ungulate populations due to adverse wolf
impacts.”
In other words, “If a wolf gets an elk
that would have otherwise been available to me and my clients, I
wanna be paid for it!’
No doubt when grizzlies
are reintroduced into Idaho, outfitters will want the same
compensation. The problem will be to distinguish black bear
predation, for which they get no compensation, from a kill by
grizzlies. It maketh one to scratch one’s
head.
Lynn
Fritchman
Boise,
Idaho
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Some predators have clout.
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