The way the province intends to manage B.C.’s grey wolf is the subject of a newly released wolf management plan.
The 48-page report, released Thursday, outlines several recommended management actions and also proposes a two-zone management strategy approach.
Management actions include; improving the accuracy of provincial and regional wolf population assessments, consider a more structured approach to determining when management changes are necessary and to consider policy changes to include the option of wolf control where wildlife populations or livestock are threatened by wolf predation.
The two-zone management strategy would recognize the objectives for wildlife populations threatened by wolf predation, such as cattle or mountain caribou, in one area while managing wolves elsewhere in the province to maintain naturally regulated predator/prey systems.
The report indicates wolf populations are likely stable or increasing throughout the province with a current population of about 8,500 wolves, though those numbers are estimates.
In the Cariboo region, as in most areas of the province, wolf removal more than doubled in 2009 and 2010, according to the report.
About 200 wolves were reported to have been trapped or hunted in 2010 in the Cariboo.
