Speaker concerned by 'wolving of America'

POST FALLS - Jim Beers believes the wolf controversy will jolt urban centers after all. And, when it does, it won't be pretty. Beers, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and wolf expert from Minnesota, told about 50 people attending his talk on "The Wolving of America" on Wednesday that disease-carrying wolves will wander along recreation paths on the outskirts of cities and the diseases will spread to homes through dogs.

POST FALLS - Jim Beers believes the wolf controversy will jolt urban centers after all.

And, when it does, it won't be pretty.

Beers, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and wolf expert from Minnesota, told about 50 people attending his talk on "The Wolving of America" on Wednesday that disease-carrying wolves will wander along recreation paths on the outskirts of cities and the diseases will spread to homes through dogs.

"Sniffing feces is the perfect place to pick up tapeworms," Beers said, adding that disease can also spread in other ways such as saliva and blood. "That's what dogs do. They're always smelling for other dogs and canines."

Beers spoke at the Greyhound Park and Event Center during an event sponsored by the Spokane chapter of Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights.

He said the exposure of the wolf problem to cities is a good thing because those are the areas that tend to control politics. He named 29 diseases that wolves carry that could affect humans, wildlife or domestic animals.

Beers said all wolves don't carry diseases, but enough do that the emerging problem may break the divide between urban and rural sentiment toward wolves.

Beers said that, despite the ability to hunt wolves last winter, packs of wolves are a threat in North Idaho and part of a growing trend.

He predicted there's going to be more incidents such as the hound that was killed in the Wolf Lodge area earlier this month by what the owner believes was wolves.

"You're going to lose more dogs," Beers said. "Bear dogs are like a magnet for (wolves)."

Martin Howser, president of the property rights alliance, said the talk was held to give rural landowners information and spark people to become politically involved.

"The issue of re-introducing wolves and the appearance of the Canadian gray wolf, which weighs upwards of 200 pounds, into our rural areas holds serious consequences for the properties and lives or our fellow citizens," he said.

However, the Northern Idaho Wolf Alliance, a Sandpoint-based group of wolf advocates, believes wolves play an important role in a healthy ecosystem based on scientific studies. The NIWA, in a press release, called Beers' talk of diseases "overblown hype directed at stirring up anti-wolf sentiment."

Ken Fischman, NIWA spokesman, said Beers has been speaking to draw anti-federal government support while portraying the gray wolf as the symbol of government intrusion on personal rights.

"Wolves have become the scapegoats for almost every imaginable discontent some people have in this era of high unemployment and financial crisis," he said. "Perhaps we should call them 'scapewolves.'"

Beers said there's no effective way to control wolves and thus they will continue to cause stress on wildlife numbers and the rural economy.

Wolves in Idaho are no longer protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. In May 2009 wolf management in Idaho reverted to state management. During the wolf hunting season that ended on March 31, 188 were killed.

Beers said the best way to make changes in the wolf status in specific local areas is to have county commissioners put pressure on the state.

"You need to re-orient the state fish and wildlife agencies to work for the people of the state and not the far-away federal bureaucrats," Beers said.

He said if urban voters get engaged with the disease threat that wolves pose to them, that may be a key to finding answers in what he believes is a growing problem.

"Maybe we can work with them to take back state sovereignty and local communities can be in charge of their own destiny," Beers said.

The Idaho Fish and Game declined to comment on Beers' talk.

IDFG recently authorized four backcountry outfitters to help reduce wolf numbers in parts of the Lolo wolf management zone. The outfitters are authorized to kill up to five wolves each in their operating area by the end of the spring bear season June 30.

The effort is in response to concerns that wolf numbers are preventing recovery of elk herds.