The Idaho Department of Fish and Game will land helicopters in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area this winter to put radio collars on wolves.
The U.S. Forest Service has given the state permission to land choppers up to 20 times, to collar about a dozen wolves.
The Forest Service resisted a broader request from the state in 2006, but decided this latest, more limited proposal was acceptable.
Landing helicopters in a federally protected wilderness has long been a point of contention. The use of motorized or even mechanized travel is not normally allowed in congressionally mandated wilderness areas. But Idaho officials say trapping wolves from the ground isn’t effective, so they want to do it while they’re flying on annual winter deer and elk counts over the 2.24 million acre area in central Idaho.
Some environmental groups are suspicious Idaho’s proposed flights will contribute to killing wolves, which now number about 1,000 in the state and more than 1,600 in the northern Rocky Mountains, including Wyoming and Montana.
Even without permission from the federal government, Department of Fish and Game officials landed a helicopter in the wilderness after darting a wolf on April 12.
Federal officials labeled the landing “an incursion;” Fish and Game believes it has a right to land in wilderness areas, but sought permission from the Forest Service because it wants to cooperate with federal land managers. (AP)
