Your right I have not researched a whole bunch, and perhaps my ignorance is showing trough. I don’t know what an AUM is or even if the figures that you gave are accurate. To be honest it isn’t that high on my priority list right now.
I do know that grazing on public land is not as attractive as grazing private. Gates left open because they can not be locked, idiots that choose to shoot livestock for what ever reason, things like that. Overgrazing and in poor condition? I don’t know that I have seen it. Is all grazing on public land over grazing to you? The things that I see here are beer and pop bottles along the road, shot up road signs and things like that, I would dare bet that it isn’t the rancher doing all that. This is your issue not mine. I’m likely to side with the rancher anyway. Perhaps the grazing would be worth more if the public could be locked out?
I will not argue that the fish and game knows where their bread is buttered and it isn’t from the sale of tags for predators. LOL However the checks are made out to the same place.
So what is holding Wyoming up on getting their plan together? Once they do are the antis going to sue to get the wolf listed again?
Fairness to tax-payers? Is it fair that tax payers spend money on helicopter hours and man hours to capture and transplant a single wolf when a well placed shot, or trap could solve the problem with less money than it takes to start the helicopter?
Lions and Bears are here management plans are in place, they are not a new risk to ranchers or wildlife, but the wolf is new to our generation and I, for one, am resistant to change. Especially when the decisions are being made in distant places, Utah has had several things forced on us, a National Park that the dedication ceremony was held in Arizona, thank you Mr. Clinton, and now the wolf. I have argued that the coyote gets a lot of blame that perhaps he doesn’t deserve the wolf might be no different. I have heard many an elk and deer hunter piss and moan about lion depredation. It stands to reason that the loin is responsible for more elk calves because there are more of them and distributed in a wider range. It is my understanding that lions and bears are least likely to be effected by wolves and the coyotes that moved to the mountain areas after the wolf was driven out most effected. So are you getting lion tags and killing females?
All in all I don’t know if you are picking my opinions apart for entertainment or if I typed something that hit a nerve either way one fact remains, I’m a long way from Missoula, Montana,

and I still think that wolves in Utah should be transplanted back to Wyoming or wherever they came from when the opportunity arises. Nobody has offered anything that would change my mind yet. If you want to school me about how the wolf has benefited your state or how you think it will I will shut up and try and ask good questions so I can better understand. Maybe in that time you can decide if I’m a hypocrite or just ignorant, or both?
