States to feds: Let us control the gray wolves | McClatchy Washington Bureau

At the end of 2015, roughly 800 wolves inhabited Idaho, according to state estimates.

And Virgil Moore, the director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, had a message for Congress this week: The state, not the federal government, should control them.

“In Idaho, we manage populations of both predator and prey species so they are sustainable, and so they do not need federal protection,” Moore told the House Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Wednesday. “In Idaho, public hunting is important to our culture and our management. We sustainably manage elk, mule and white-tailed deer, moose, wolves, mountain lions, black bears, a variety of game birds, and many other species of fish and wildlife.”

Moore and officials from other states made their cases to Congress as federal management of the wolves under the Endangered Species Act came under sharp attack.

Many critics are irked that the issue of whether to remove the gray wolf from the federal act remains tied up in the courts.

Among them: Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington state. In July, the House voted to approve his plan to promote the federal delisting of the gray wolf.

Groups that want to keep the gray wolves on the list of endangered species say the animals have still not fully recovered, occupying far less territory in the U.S. than they once did.

Moore told the panel that Idaho’s gray wolf population is now “sustainable and prolific.”