After Canadian wolves were released into the northern Rocky Mountain area (in 1995 and 1996), they soon expanded and began killing livestock. Sportsmen also noticed some elk populations declining. Within a few years, wolf population in Idaho surpassed the number required before they could be delisted. Eventually, management and control was turned over to the state, and Idaho Fish and Game initiated a hunting season. Hunter success rates are low, and it was still illegal to kill wolves outside the designated hunting season or without a license and tag.
In 2023, the Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board announced a new initiative to control wolves on private property and approved spending up to $50,000 per year for producers to undertake wolf removal projects – with board approval. Ranchers would be allowed to remove wolves or hire a private contractor and be reimbursed.
Chanel Tewalt, director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), says there were two bills before the legislature in 2024 related to wolf depredation. “They are slightly different. House Bill 592 establishes a fund for conflict prevention, and livestock depredation involving wolves and grizzly bears. This is the first time Idahoans have had access for grizzly bear compensation [for livestock losses]. With wolves, in the last few years we’ve seen significant reduction available in federal funding to producers for depredation reimbursement,” says Tewalt.
“We are still hoping the federal agencies will provide funding again, but in the meantime, the state is helping design something to help producers with depredation losses. We now have state money for conflict prevention and depredation by wolves or grizzly bears,” she says.
This fund has been established, but rules for how producers access funding are still being finalized. “All factors are being worked through in the administrative rule process by the ISDA, Idaho Fish and Game, and the Office of Species Conservation, which is what the new law told us to do. The three agencies will work together to come up with the rule and the sideboards for funding – what a rancher must do to determine eligibility.”
There is a temporary rule in place until the actual rule is finalized. “Stakeholders will come to the table and put meat on the bones of the temporary rule – to determine eligibility and make sure we work through exceptions and other tricky aspects,” Tewalt says. At the time of writing, no state funding (from HB592) has been awarded to producers yet, since the claim deadline was Dec. 31, 2024.
The second bill is House Bill 612. “This involves the Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board, which was established in 2014 but never did anything for depredation compensation. It receives state general funds, money from sportsmen and money from the livestock industry, to be used for wolf control efforts in areas where wolves are eating livestock,” says Tewalt.
“Under House Bill 612, the wolf board is allowed to use existing funding to help producers who suffer depredation. It looks at historic losses – production prior to wolf reintroduction to Idaho compared to what it is today, or if a rancher knows what his numbers were when he turned livestock on the range and how many didn’t come home,” says Tewalt.
The role of sportsmen and trappers
Another source of funding for wolf control is the Foundation for Wildlife Management (F4WM). Justin Webb, executive director, says the hunting public didn’t know how to productively assist in bringing elk numbers back. “Due to the sudden explosion of wolves, some of us met with the Idaho Fish and Game Department and wildlife biologists, to figure out how sportsmen could play a role. Funding was also an issue. At that time, a group of sportsmen here in north Idaho made a pact to stop hunting deer and elk and strictly hunt wolves,” he says.
“We looked at Canada and Alaska where wolves have been managed a long time. They told us trapping would be the only way to productively control numbers. Not being trappers, we reached out to the only trapper we could find locally and asked him to teach us how to trap wolves. He said trapping would cost us so much money we wouldn’t be able to do it, so we asked him what it would take to have him do it,” says Webb.
That conversation led to formation of the Foundation for Wildlife Management (F4WM) in 2011, and it obtained 501(c)(3) status in 2012. “We removed over 2,400 wolves, at a cost of roughly 2.3 million dollars generated by concerned citizens and sportsmen. We also built relationships with ag industry leaders and tried to unite sportsmen groups to create one large voice to present to the Fish and Game Department, legislators, etc., and maybe have enough clout to create positive changes. We have expanded sportsmen’s abilities to manage wolves to the point that Idaho now has the most liberal wolf hunting seasons on the continent.”
Unfortunately, because wolves reproduce so rapidly, only recently have these efforts started to reduce numbers. “Then a federal lawsuit over grizzly bear protection closed over 50 percent of our trapping season. By the end of the 2024 season, reproduction rate will have added back all the numbers we had successfully reduced; we’ll be back where we were five to eight years ago.”
F4WM reimburses its members up to $2,000 per wolf taken from areas where the Idaho Fish and Game Department asks them to harvest wolves – where they are causing the most problems for ranchers.
“We now have 200,000 dollars through combined funds from the Wolf Depredation Control Board, from Fish and Game license dollars, through our program, to reimburse hunters and trappers for their expenses for successful harvest. The wolf control board in 2023 also implemented on a trial basis an opportunity for ranchers to hire their own contractor, to target wolves on their own ranch – to be reimbursed for their expenses. There was 50,000 dollars set aside for that trial program,” says Webb.
“Those ranchers are paying for effort rather than success. In our program, we only fund success. But in this trial program, in one instance the trapper was being paid 2,000 dollars per month to be on the ranch, and additionally he was funded 2,000 dollars for each wolf he removed. This helps encourage a trapper who lives elsewhere to come and spend that time and effort. There are some places trappers are unwilling to go because they know how low the odds are for catching a wolf,” he says.
Paul Antczak, a trapper in Montana, was one of the founding members of the Flathead Chapter of the Foundation for Wildlife Management. He has been a trapper 46 years, trapping in nine states. “I run my trapping program like any other business, with a budget for fuel and expenses. Before the F4WM came to Montana, I could only afford to trap for half the wolf season. Now, as long as I am catching wolves, I can collect the money they provide for wolf harvest. When I catch a wolf I know I have a check coming – so I am able to keep running and pay my bills,” he says.
Just about all of the trappers in his region are now a part of this group. “You only have to pay 40 dollars per year to be a member,” says Antczak. Many sportsmen want to kill a wolf since this is the hardest animal to successfully hunt. Trappers have more success than hunters, and this program creates an opportunity for them to be more able to afford to make the effort and offset some of the expenses for each wolf they harvest. Ranchers having problems with depredation can now hire a trapper and be reimbursed.