Ed Bangs, USFWS: “They’re No Big Deal” re: Wolves
January 30, 2010
Last week Ed Bangs, head wolf recovery guru for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that the decline in moose populations in the Yellowstone National Park area was due to climate change and that his reintroduction of wolves has nothing to do with it. He also was quoted as saying that the presence of wolves worldwide, was “no big deal”. In the context in which that statement was made, let me post it here as it appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune as of January 21, 2010.
“People who don’t like them [wolves] give them supernatural powers. It’s that way all over the world,” Bangs says. “In reality, they’re no big deal.”
That’s really the ultimate in ignorant statements, especially coming from a professional working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It also appears I’m not alone in that assessment.
Tony Mayer, owner/administrator for Save Our Elk, is challenging Bangs on his statement that wolves are “no big deal”. He is asking if Bangs intends to stand by that statement and gives us all a list of reasons the presence of wolves may be a bigger deal than Bangs or others are willing to admit.
Consider the impact to an ecosystem that was previously untouched by wolves (prior to 1994). Consider that this same Rocky Mountain Wilderness area now has a top-tier predator thrust into its midst. The predator has experienced phenomenal growth and currently exceeds 2,000 to 3,000 wolves depending whose numbers you believe. This predator is a borne killer and hunts 365 days per year. It is responsible for killing 6,000 and 12,000 elk monthly. Do you still want to stand by your statement “In reality, they’re no big deal?”
Consider that Elk/Calf recruitment has plummeted to record lows in many areas where these wolves roam and is now below replenishment levels. Do you still want to stand by your statement “In reality, they’re no big deal?”
Consider that wolves are primarily responsible for rapid spread of parasites and diseases within their range. These parasites Neospora Caninum and Echinococcus granulose were largely undetected prior to the introduction of wolves and now are infecting other wildlife and livestock at alarming rates. The impact of these 2,000 to 3,000 wolves exponentially spreading disease within our borders is catastrophic, and will forever impact our game, domestic livestock and potentially to humans. Do you still want to stand by your statement “In reality, they’re no big deal??”
Consider the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been wasted and that wolves are continuing to cost our government and the citizens of our states. Do you still want to stand by your statement “In reality, they’re no big deal?”
And being as Mr. Bangs declared that wolves worldwide were no big deal, I can add to this list more than time would allow, the negative impact wolves have had on people’s lives. Mayer points out what is taking place in and around the Yellowstone area. Most of us are uninformed about the long and sordid history of wolves worldwide and the death and destruction to humans and their property caused by wolves. In America we scoff and claim such stories to be myths, as does Bangs in his own ignorance, much due to the indoctrination we have all had beat into our brains since birth. He was only one step away from referencing Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.
No, the sky is not falling or the world coming to an end. Real wildlife conservationists are interested in first protecting the health and safety of humans and then their property. Where wildlife populations once were sparse and in need of help, hunters’ money from license fees etc. brought back to the Yellowstone and many other areas of this country, bountiful and healthy species of game and wildlife. It is irresponsible to sit by and allow ignorance, driven by special interest groups, to destroy this investment.
Ed Bangs works for all taxpayers. If he honestly believes that an overblown population of a ravaging predator, known to carry diseases, is “no big deal”, then it is time that USFWS found a replacement for him.
Tom Remington
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What a joke of an article! This is a typical hunting article created by hunters to devistate wolves and people who support them. Elk foundation state that elk population sin Wyoming, Idaho and Montana are at their highest they have been in two decades and it all began after the reintroduction of wolves. Other sources (Fish and Wildlife, Sierra Club, NWF, etc) say that moose, caribou and deer populations are at their highest in the past 10 decades. you guys don’t have any fact, just your created and fabricated views to portray wolves in a negative way. Others share your views? Who are the others, hunters? Good back up resource you have there!
I live smack in the middle of this wolf reintroduction, I have watched wild life for forty+ years, Most of that time doing hard time in the back country, watching elk herds, in winter, summer, spring and fall, The decimation of the elk and deer is the truth, the surplus of wolves in Idaho is the truth, The Sierra Club, NWF, WWP, DOW, FWS, are all anti hunting groups, and their ultimate goal is to destroy that right, these groups crap on the Declaration of Independence daily. These groups look to estimates by IDFG which is attempting to gain control of the wolf population because they know, even though the do not directly admit it, the wolves are wiping out the elk. The more time goes on, the more even the blind deniers of the real truth of what is happening here on the ground, or the front lines of this information war, will know that truth, and they will shut up finally.
NO ELK NO WOLVES- PERIOD.. WAKE UP TO THE REAL TRUTH AND SAVE THEM BOTH, AND STOP BEING A DUMBASS MORON….
There are those of us who argued this truth finally admitted to by IDFG four to five years before the below statement.. That is how far behind the truth some morons really are.
Elk numbers in the Lolo and Sawtooth elk management zones are seriously depressed – by wolf predation. The science (years of high quality elk and wolf population radio-telemetry data) is clear. Wolf predation is depressing elk production well below what we should expect for the habitat quality in those zones. Elk habitat quality was following a natural, declining trend after the 1910 fires. The depressed elk production and the factors contributing to that depression is a combination of habitat quality AND substantial wolf predation on productive cow and calf elk.
—Mark Gamblin–South West Director Idaho Fish and Game..August 15, 2009, 2:40 pm
The Lolo and Sawtooth Zones the recent, sharp decline in elk productivity and recruitment I referred to is due to wolf predation of productive cows and their calves, not hunting mortality. The radio-telemety data we have for cows and calves in those zones gives us the fate of each collared elk and allows us to accurately estimate the wolf predation rate of cows and calves. Having good baseline data for these elk populations from previous years, including hunting harvest data, we can say with certainty that wolf predation has pushed elk production and recruitment in these two zones below levels that have required substantial reductions in the elk hunting opportunity that was allowable with essentially the same habitat when wolves were introduced. HOW we manage this new wildlife population dynamic (elk-wolf) and the necessary changes in public uses and benefits of those resources is of course our challenge.— Mark Gamblin —–South West Director Idaho Fish and Game..August 15, 4:08 pm
“From a wildlife perspective, there’s no question that this growing wolf population has had a devastating impact on our elk populations and our moose populations,” he said. “Our scientists’ and biologists’ studies on all these collared packs indicate that each wolf eats an average of 16 elk per year, so if you do the math and are being conservative, our 1,000 wolves are eating 16,000 elk per year.” Randy Budge– Southern Director Idaho Fish and Game.. 2-5-10
Just because a person hunts and or ranches or is involved in those activities does not qualify them as a liar, as is the Sierra Club, DOW, WWP, FWS, ELK foundation, (what a Joke) All agenda driven groups, supporting the U.N. final take over of these lands, forests, and wild game.. By any means necessary, including Lying.. Included is the agenda to stop hunting.
Phillip – I think you have it backwards. You landed on this site which is loaded with hundreds and hundreds of articles laced with link after link to resources that support any and all claims.
You are the one who has presented claims about how elk, moose, caribou and deer populations are the highest they’ve been, all happening since wolf reintroduction. You need to provide resources to back your claims.
And by the way. You do realized this particular discussion takes place in the West, around Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Oregon and Washington? There are no caribou there.
Tom,
Actually there is a small herd of Caribou up north of Priest River which is in North Idaho. They run from Canada across the border into Idaho. Wonder how well they’ll do with the wolves around.
Phillip- Get a clue if you don’t know, don’t speak.
I have a friend living up there who says the Caribou are not doing so well due to wolves predations..
I would like to know where the Zumwalt elk herd has gone, and the Bull Trout Lake- Banner elk Ridge herd, their gone, And the Elk Creek, Bridal Vail herd, their gone.. Dust in the wind no doubt, reduced to a Hydatid spore. And the White Hawk Basin Elk herd……… And the…….
My boycott has ended after one year, nothing left to do but shoot the illegal United Nations Canadian dog.
Three yotes have bit the dust..
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is an abomination, as it opens the door for federal authority over State sovereignty. The US Constitution grants the federal government no authority over wildlife! Under the Constitution, States have jurisdiction over essentially all land. Beginning in 1900, federal officials operating under the ” commerce clause ” enforced federal law to gain authority over certain poaching activities. The adoption of the initial Endangered Species Act was in the 1940s and the current Endangered Species Act of 1973 is based on a United Nations model. If you think foreigners dreaming this crap up (ESA) are Americans friends, you are a ignorant fool. It is the U.N.s wolf and it is doing a wonderful job destroying hunting opportunity.
Mike – Thank you for correcting me on that. According to the Idaho F&G website, the woodland caribou is listed as an endangered species in Bonner and Boundary Counties, the two northernmost counties in Idaho’s panhandle.
Greg
Where is this (or was) the Zumwalt herd?