Canadian wolves were released into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and central Idaho in 1996 — but within a few years their territory and numbers had greatly expanded, along with their negative impact on livestock and elk herds.

Idaho finally initiated wolf hunting seasons in 2009 after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains and Western Great Lakes.

Justin Webb, Executive Director, Foundation for Wildlife Management, says some of the hunting public met with Idaho Fish and Game Department and wildlife biologists, trying to determine how sportsmen could help. 

“A group of sportsmen in North Idaho made a pact to stop hunting deer and elk and strictly hunt wolves, based on what we were seeing in the woods,” Webb says. Hunter success in killing wolves was very low, however.

“We looked into what Canada and Alaska were doing; they had been managing wolves a long time,” Webb says. “They told us trapping was the only way to control numbers. We reached out to the only trapper we could find locally and asked him to teach us how to trap wolves. He said wolf trapping would cost us so much money we wouldn’t be able to do it. That conversation led to formation of the Foundation for Wildlife Management (F4WM).” 

Related:Colo. wolf depredations prompt more funding

The foundation was established in 2011 and obtained 501c3 status in 2012.

“We removed over 2400 wolves, at a cost of roughly $2.3 million generated by concerned citizens and sportsmen. We tried to unite sportsmen groups and ag industry leaders to create one large voice to present to the Fish and Game Department, legislators, etc. and expanded sportsmen’s abilities to manage wolves to the point that Idaho now has the most liberal wolf harvest seasons on the continent.”

Unfortunately, because wolves reproduce so rapidly, these efforts barely made a dent. “Then a federal lawsuit over grizzly bear protection closed more than 50% of our trapping season. By the end of 2024 wolf reproduction rate added back all the numbers we had reduced; we are right back where we were 8 years ago,” he says.

This is discouraging to hunters, and ranchers who lose livestock. 

“I am not a rancher, but I have friends who raise cattle,” Webb says. “I can’t imagine being in their shoes. When your cattle come home off the range and you are 40 head short, it’s devastating. It’s been a struggle for ranchers to get help. 

“We reimburse our members up to $2000 per wolf taken from areas where Idaho Fish and Game asks us to send our people to harvest wolves—where they are causing the most problems for ranchers.  Over 60% of our funding goes back to members who remove wolves where they are causing the most problems.  When we started working with the Fish and Game Department, $200,000 from their license and tag fees went to the Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board to route to our program, to help bolster the dollars. That year we went from hardly any harvest to over 40 wolves removed from the areas suffering the most cattle depredations,” he says.

Related:Learning from Yellowstone: Wolves not a quick fix

Habitat is limited 

When the USFWS released wolves, they used 30 years of various studies and determined there was only suitable habitat for 1,100 total wolves in the entire Northern Rocky Mountain Distinct Population Segment Area, which is all of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, the eastern one-third of both Oregon and Washington, and a portion of Utah. 

“Idaho alone has housed more wolves--for more than 12 years--than the entire system was supposed to support.” 

The recovery plan criteria for wolves was met in 2000 but it took another nine years of fighting lawsuits to obtain management of wolves. 

“In those nine years their population exploded far beyond what we were supposed to have,” Webb says. “Now we can’t catch up; they reproduce faster than we can harvest every year.

“Idaho Fish and Game’s wolf management plan intends to use the reimbursement program to remove 37% of our wolf population for six straight years, in an effort to get back to the 500 in Idaho we have suitable habitat for. The challenge is how to do it. Hunter success (during hunting season for wolves) is less than ¼ of 1%. The trapping community sometimes has over 30% success rate, but the federal lawsuit recently stopped this, saying we might ‘take’ a grizzly bear,” says Webb.

There are several tools today, however. 

“We have the $200,000 through 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. In addition, the Board in 2023 implemented on a trial basis an opportunity for ranchers to hire their own contractor, to target wolves on their own ranch — and be reimbursed for their expenses. There was $50,000 set aside for the trial program,” he says.

“In our program, we only fund success; if you don’t harvest a wolf you receive nothing. But in this trial program, in one instance a trapper was paid $2000 per month to be on the ranch the whole month, and also received $2000 for each wolf he removed. This helps encourage a trapper who lives elsewhere to come spend that time and effort. Without this funding, there are some places trappers won’t go because the odds are too low for catching a wolf,” he says.

Big expenses

“In Idaho, by law, a trapper must visit every trap site every 72 hours, but wolves run a 3-to-5-week cycle through their 250-square-mile home range. You only get one chance a month for them to be in any given location—but you have to be there every 72 hours. Your fuel bill becomes atrocious. I load up my snow machine and everything I need and drive an hour to get to where I run an 80-mile loop around my trap line. I have to do that every 72 hours even though the wolves will only be there once a month. Expenses far surpass what you get for the harvest!” says Webb.

“To be a member of F4WM you sign up for $40 a year. If you are not harvesting wolves, that $40 goes to someone who is--to help keep him in the woods.  If you harvest a wolf the state gives you a game mortality report. You give us a copy of that report and your out-of-pocket expense receipts.  We must have a receipt on file for every dollar we fund; it’s a reimbursement of your expenses,” says Webb.

“I personally have trapped 43 wolves and shot two, and average about $1,500 in expense for each wolf I’ve caught, just for fuel.  That doesn’t include the 3 snowmobiles I’ve blown up, and 130 traps that cost about $88 apiece.  There is a huge amount of expense that a person never recovers.”

Webb is doing this for two reasons. “One, I don’t want my ranching friends to suffer such traumatic losses. Two, my favorite thing in the world is hiking into the backcountry and sitting on a ridge when the sun comes up, with elk bugling around me. If I don’t help halt the wolf impact on elk herds, my kids are never going to have that opportunity,” he says.

“To enjoy the wildlife and ranching Idaho has always had, we must control wolf numbers. Until this federal lawsuit, trapping was open year-round on private land, which allowed ranchers who were having problems on their property to hire people to target wolves on their ranch. Most of the depredation, however, is on their grazing allotments. Wolves are usually smart enough to stay off private land during daylight hours.”