PRESS RELEASE - Friday, October 9, 2009
For Information Call Anne Peterson at 208-373-7368

OUTDOOR IDAHO Looks at “Wolves in Idaho”

— Airs Thursday, October 15, at 8:00/7:00 p.m. MT/PT; Repeats Sunday, October 18, at 7:00 p.m. MT/PT
— Also in High Definition (HD) Thursday, October 15 at 9:00/8:00 p.m. MT/PT and Sunday, October 18, at 8:00/7:00 p.m. MT/PT

OUTDOOR IDAHO presents a new episode that looks at the wolf, once an Idaho native that has been returned to the state’s mountains amid a chorus of controversy.

“Wolves are definitely a cultural shock to the system. We’re entering our 27th season of OUTDOOR IDAHO and there has not been a more polarizing topic we’ve covered than this one,” says Bruce Reichert, executive producer. “But it has provided us a great opportunity to interview some of the state’s foremost biologists, as well as hunters, a sheep rancher and wolf advocates, to explore just what it means to have wolves in Idaho.”

The program premieres Thursday, October 15, at 8:00/7:00 p.m. MT/PT, and repeats Sunday, October 18, at 7:00 p.m. MT/PT. (See it in High Definition on HD sub-channel 2 on Thursday, October 15 at 9:00/8:00 p.m. MT/PT and Sunday, October 18, at 8:00/7:00 p.m. MT/PT.)

The discussion continues on DIALOGUE, immediately following the Thursday OUTDOOR IDAHO show at 8:30/7:30 p.m. MT/PT. Host Marcia Franklin and her guests discuss “Wolves” and take calls from viewers on a toll-free line at (800) 973-9800. (Dialogue repeats Sunday at 5:30/4:30 p.m. MT/PT. It also airs on the HD sub-channel 2 on Thursdays at 9:30/8:30 p.m. MT/PT and Sundays at 8:30/7:30 p.m. MT/PT.)

OUTDOOR IDAHO captures the many sides of what it means to once again hear the howls and see the tracks of wolves, or the animals themselves, re-established as Idaho residents since 1995.

“I don’t think anyone dreamed that they would be as successful as they have,” says Jim Unsworth of Idaho Fish and Game Department. “Wolves did really well (in Idaho) because there were lots of animals to take advantage of, and wolves will continue to expand as long as they can keep pioneering into new areas that have healthy ungulate populations.”

The current expanding population led to the recent Idaho Fish and Game Department decision to set the state’s first wolf hunt. Robert Millage of Kamiah became the first hunter to harvest a wolf.

“I kind of see it as a duty as a hunter in this area to help with predator management and control,” Millage says.

Lynn Stone of Stanley, who admires the animals’ tight family structure, intelligence and charisma says one of the good things that can come out of the hunt is that “the wolves will become much more afraid of people.”

For ranchers whose livestock graze on public lands, wolves add an additional element of predation. John Faulkner, whose family has been in the sheep business for a century, runs sheep in the Smokey Mountains, the Trinities and around the Sawtooths. He and his family have become believers in the big guard dogs and look to them to help with the additional predator.

“We were losing as high as 300 lambs a year to coyotes, in about two and-a-half to three months right in that area. When we got the dogs in, if we lose 30, I think it’s a bad year,” Faulkner says.
“We’ve got the wolves now, we’re going to live with them,” he says. “I’ve resigned myself to it.”

Defenders of Wildlife provides volunteers who also help fend off wolves amid sheep herds by making noise and otherwise discouraging the animals.

That organization and the Wolf Recovery Foundation are each monitoring the wolf hunt and Idaho’s management of the wolf, now that it has been delisted from the federal Endangered Species List. “Under the current delisting plan, the states can kill all but 150 wolves per state. So we could end up with less than 500 wolves in the whole region,” says Suzanne Stone of Defenders of Wildlife. “We think that’s just too extreme and it needs to be managed at a higher number.”