OPINION: About that moose decline... What about wolves?

With all due respect, I found Sam Wilson’s article in the Jan. 4 issue (“Researchers track moose decline”) to be very vague, with few scientific facts and little research, data, or relevant information.

Wildlife researcher Jesse Newby states that moose decline may be caused by a disease or possibly climate change. Sorry, but he’s way off on both of those guesses. Moose populations in Northwest Montana have been decimated by wolves, and no other factor that has the ability to affect their survival rate comes even close.

It’s not just moose. Every region that has seen the introduction of non-native, Canadian MacKenzie Valley gray wolves (Canis lupus occidentallis), has also seen ungulate populations plummeting. I’ve been an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and conservationist my whole life. I grew up in the 1970s and ’80s, and when I was young, every time I went into the woods with my dad or grandparents, we would see moose. As soon as wolves hit the scene, moose got harder and harder to find and see, and there began to be wolf tracks everywhere in the woods; if you can’t see them, you can hear them howling everywhere in the woods, regardless of where you are.

I came across a wolf-killed moose in the spring of 2015 when I was bear hunting; the wolves had just killed this moose and were still on the carcass when I came upon them. This was no calf; it was a full-grown cow moose. The wolves disappeared into the brush once they realized I was there, and began circling me and howling.

It’s only a matter of time until they’ve cleaned out all of our game and started working on our livestock, pets, and even children.

The timber wolf (Canis lupus irremotus) was eradicated early last century FOR A REASON. Ranchers, trappers, and outdoorsmen knew that these animals were trouble clear back in the early 1900s. It’s not hard to find pictures and articles all over the Internet that show how the even more aggressive Canadian wolves have decimated game populations everywhere. Please, check it out.

If you asked all the hunters and outdoorsmen in this state if they thought the declining moose population was caused by ticks, disease, or climate change, or if they thought it was caused by wolf predation, I’m certain you would receive a huge number of responses stating wolf predation as the cause.

These hunters and outdoorsmen are the true citizens of our state and make up a hefty portion of the taxpaying population; they also truly care about our environment and the health and success of the native animals within it. Unfortunately, it seems that the small portion of people in (or outside of!) Montana who are animal rights activists have unlimited funding and have a profound effect on what Fish, Wildlife and Parks and other government-run entities can say and do when it comes to our Montana forests and wildlife.

As was stated in the article, moose are hard to count because of their varying habits and long-range traveling. But it would be absurd to assume they’re thriving when the more easily counted ungulates, such as deer and elk, are severely and obviously suffering as a result of wolf predation.

I understand that there are other factors that can infuence the health of our ungulate populations, but they do not compare to the impacts the wolves have had — it is amazing that wolves were never even mentioned in the entire article. Climate change? The article claims that “rising temperatures could be impacting moose populations,” but if you look at the graph at http://appinsys.com/globalwarming/RS_Montana_usa.htm that shows the average annual temperatures for Kalispell and Cut Bank from 1910 through 2000, you will see that there is no significant upward trend. The moose are NOT suffering from climate change, and it is a waste of time and taxpayers’ money to be exploring such unrealistic options.

I’m thankful that we are now able to harvest wolves through a rifle season and trapping, but it is simply not enough. It is time for our government to listen to and represent the true supporters of Montana’s forests, rivers, and wildlife, and take action to remove these non-native predators from the forests in which they never belonged and to stop their unnecessary and unhealthy impacts on our native Montana wildlife.

Baracker is a resident of Columbia Falls.