Wolves in the News
April 20, 2010: Could Idaho's wolves be a tourist attraction?
KETCHUM - Last year, you could sit in downtown Ketchum with a spotting scope and watch the Phantom Hill wolf pack "lounging around" on the mountains outside of town, Francie St. Onge recalls.
But with two members of the pack harvested in Idaho's first wolf hunting season in decades, another killed by a car, and a fourth taken by wildlife services for harassing livestock, this season is a little different.
"The wolves have scattered quite a bit. They're becoming more remote and more wary," said St. Onge.
St. Onge knows that as well as anybody - for the second year in a row, she has led Sun Valley Trekking's daylong wolf ecology programs.
It's one of the ways wolf advocates hope the animals can bring value to a state that has long seen little benefit to having wolves in its backcountry.
For $50, lunch included, the program is an opportunity for people to learn about the polarizing predator. A recent trek attracted a diverse crowd...
St. Onge tries to keep the customer count around eight, although an April 10 group was larger. She had a waiting list of 15 this year for the two programs and is considering adding a third next year.
John Robison, public lands director of the Idaho Conservation League, participated in the program and thinks wolf tourism has "tremendous potential."
He wishes that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game would do more to educate people about wolves, and promote them as an animal to be viewed, and not just hunted.
A University of Montana study shows how lucrative that can be.
"If you look just across the border at Yellowstone, (wolf tourism) is a $35 million industry," Robison said.
He note that Fish and Game's own wolf management plan calls for it to "identify wolf viewing areas and opportunities." -Copyright © 2010 Idaho Statesman
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