Idaho OKs year-round wolf hunt; act galvanizes anti-hunting groups

LEWISTON, Idaho — Wolf-hunting season will be open 365 days a year on private property in northern Idaho’s Clearwater Region.

The Lewiston Tribune reports that the Fish and Game Commission made the rule change in the last week as part of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s 2014 Big Game Hunting Rules Package.

The commission also moved up the opening of wolf-trapping season in the Lolo and Selway zones.

The commission in 2012 approved year-round wolf hunting on private land in the Panhandle Region. Adding the Clearwater Region means wolf hunting on most private land from the Canadian border to the Salmon River is legal in Idaho.

Dave Cadwallader, supervisor of the department’s Clearwater Region at Lewiston, said the change likely won’t greatly increase the number of wolves killed in the region. He said it’s mainly to give private landowners the ability to kill wolves to protect property.

“It gives them an opportunity to help themselves if that is what they need,” he said. “In the end, I don’t think you are going to see an active hunting effort.”

He said the change in the Panhandle Region hasn’t resulted in a large increase in wolves being killed.