Idahoans Against Removing Wolves, Poll Shows Chenoweth Camp Questions Results, Method Of Random Phone Survey

A federal judge says gray wolves must be removed from Idaho. But Idaho residents want them to stay.

A survey released Tuesday by the National Wildlife Federation suggests Idaho residents disagree with a recent decision to remove the wolves that were captured in Canada and transplanted in central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park.

Last December, U.S. District Judge William Downes ruled that the wolf reintroduction violated the Endangered Species Act, and ordered the wolves and their offspring captured and removed.

The federation says the Yellowstone wolf population has increased from 41 wolves to 90 in just over two years. The central Idaho group has grown from 25 to 73 wolves.

“The judge reached this decision because of a technical violation he found,” said Mark Van Putten, federation president, at a news conference. “Now one of the greatest success stories is being threatened.”

Of the 200 people polled in Idaho, 55 percent supported returning the wolves to Yellowstone and central Idaho while 40 percent opposed the program.

Only one in three Idaho residents polled said they support removing the wolves in those areas; slightly more than half said leave them there.

The cost of catching wolves in Canada, then releasing and monitoring the wolves in the United States was $6.5 million in 1994, said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“If we removed all the wolves, and started over to where we were in 1994, we’re talking about probably costing $15 million more than if we just kept doing what we’re doing,” Bangs said.

In the survey, which the federation released Tuesday at a press conference, 60 percent of Idaho residents said they strongly believe people have driven wolves to the brink of extinction and they have a moral obligation to save the animals; 35 percent disagreed.

About three-fourths of the Idaho residents polled said it would be a waste of time and money to round up the wolves. A similar number said they would be against the plan if it meant killing the animals.

“Enforcing (the court order) would likely mean killing the wolves,” Van Putten said.

About 200 Idaho residents were randomly surveyed by phone for the poll. The youngest person over age 18 in the home was questioned.

A spokesman for Rep. Helen Chenoweth, who supports the judge’s decision to remove the wolves, questioned the merits of the study.

The questions do not show the costs of maintaining the wolves and did not ask participants what they were willing to sacrifice for the animals, Chenoweth spokesman Chad Hyslop said.

The wolves can cause problems with livestock, and people are worried about their safety, Hyslop said. The government incurred huge costs by placing the wolves in Idaho, but that should not be a consideration with removing them, he added.

Hyslop also doubted the survey’s validity because pollsters questioned the youngest person in the home.

“Young people have very good ideas on things, but they are not part of the economy and they are not supporting a family or trying to buy a home,” he said.

Gregory Lalley, a pollster with Maryland-based Lauer, Lalley and Victoria Inc., said the poll had no biases and questioning a younger person in a household did not influence the results. He said older people are more likely to answer the phone, so asking for someone younger includes different ages in the poll.

John Freemuth of Boise State University’s Department of Public Policy and Administration said the results did not surprise him, and other polls have showed similar results.

“Generally, it seems that the presence of wolves is supported by the majority of people, even though there are pockets of severe opposition,” he said.

, DataTimes