Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Seeks to Intervene in Idaho Wolf Management Case

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation filed to intervene in a lawsuit by animal rights groups seeking to thwart the management of wolves in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.RMEF has a rich history in leading wildlife research efforts around the country to advance the science of wolves, wolf interactions with elk and other wildlife, and overall wolf management. RMEF Director of Communications Mark Holyoak said intervening is what needs to be done to get the wildlife population under control.

"Last year, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game put a hunter in the back country in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness to help peel back on some of the wolf population there," Holyoak said. "They've been taken to court along with the federal folks over their ability to manage the species in their own state."

Holyoak said the hunter removed two packs of wolves and has since departed the central Idaho area where predation is having a severe effect on dwindling elk herds.

"They have a management plan that's in place," Holyoak said. "It's federally approved based on science. The elk have just been getting hammed for more than a decade now. Where there are pockets like this where there's such strong concentrations of predators, it's important that the states are allowed to do the management that they've always done."

RMEF is also an intervener in lawsuits brought by animals rights groups regarding wolf management in Wyoming and in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin while also active in a second Wyoming suit.