Idaho's Fish and Gaming Comissions wolf extermination program threatens the wilderness character of the
largest forested wilderness in the continenta
l United States by removing animals that are a
wilderness icon and whose undisturbed presence in
the wilderness is critical to maintaining
ecological balance among wildlife species.
The large-scale removal
of native wolves to
manipulate elk populations contravenes the mandate
of the 1964 Wilderness Act, which defines
wilderness as “an area where the earth and its
community of life are un
trammeled by man” and
requires federal wilderness areas to be protected
and managed so as to preserve their natural conditions and “wilderness character.”