Wolf Science: A Political Football

It started in 1987 when Ed Bangs, the Department of Interior and all the wolf-lover environmentalists sold their idea to the American people, specifically those in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, that 30 breeding pairs of wolves and 300 total wolves would be all that was needed to declare wolf recovery a success. It’s now 2010 and some estimates easily put wolf populations in those three states at over 2,000 and Ed Bangs and the same group are telling the same citizens they need more wolves.

An article yesterday in the Jackson Hole News and Guide quotes Bangs as now saying 45 breeding pairs and 450 wolves will “never be threatened”. I guess Bangs doesn’t learn from his first mistake. In 1987, 30 pairs and 300 wolves would easily do the trick, why should anybody believe for one second that his statement today is any more honest than the ones he made 25 years ago?

It’s clear the feds set the rules, we play by their rules and when the rules don’t fit the game they are playing, they change the rules. Bangs admits that the first day on the job for wolf recovery he knew 30 pairs of wolves wouldn’t be enough and we should trust him now when he tells us 45 will never be threatened?

This kind of political manipulation has to end now.