Commission To Decide Wolf Hunt Season In Idaho.

This is a big week for wolf hunters in Idaho. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will consider hunting and trapping seasons during its meeting in Salmon. Government biologists declared the gray wolf recovered from near-extermination in the Northern Rockies a decade ago. Yet they were kept on the endangered list by a series of lawsuits from environmental groups and animal rights activists, leading western lawmakers to insert a provision in the budget bill that forced the animals off the list — the first time that had happened since the Endangered Species Act was enacted in 1973. For the second time this decade the animals will be hunted in Idaho and Montana. Montana has already decided its limit. Hunters there will be able to shoot up to 220 gray wolves. The  Montana hunt is scheduled to begin in early September. Idaho's proposed 2011 wolf hunt will run without quotas in most parts of the state. There are currently around about 1,000 wolves in the gem state. The commission meeting takes place Wednesday and Thursday.