COEUR d’ALENE — Idaho Fish and Game completed “targeted wolf management actions” last weekend that killed three wolves in Unit 4 in the Panhandle elk zone, the department announced.

It’s the first time such actions have been implemented in the Idaho Panhandle.  

“This effort, when combined with recent success of local trappers, substantially reduced the size of a single wolf pack in a key part of the unit,” IDFG said in a press release.  

Trained professionals shot the wolves from a helicopter, IDFG confirmed Thursday. A trapper harvested another wolf from the same pack this winter. Officials said the exact number of wolves left in the pack is unknown. 

General season elk harvest estimates in Unit 4, which includes portions of Bonner, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, have been declining for years, according to IDFG. 

In 2010, general season elk harvest exceeded 1,100 in Unit 4, compared to about 500 elk harvested in general seasons in 2025. That’s a 55% decline in harvest over a 15-year period. 

Aerial surveys flown in portions of Unit 4 in 2023 indicated fewer elk occurring in those submits than in years past, according to IDFG. Lower mid-winter calf-to-cow ratios were observed, as well. 

Estimates of hunter success have also declined in Unit 4. 

“The primary goal of the recent action was to reduce predation and improve elk survival in a population that is underperforming,” a news release said. “Similar management efforts have been conducted annually in the Lolo elk zone in the Clearwater Region over the past decade. The objective is not to eliminate wolves, but to maintain a smaller, self-sustaining wolf population in Unit 4 that reduces predation risk on elk populations.”   

A news release said IDFG prioritizing regulated hunting and trapping as the primary tools for managing wolf populations. 

“However, targeted control actions are used to address specific conflicts and in situations where hunting and trapping have not been sufficient to meet management goals,” the department said. 

Jeff Abrams, Wildlife Program associate with the Idaho Conservation League, pointed to the Idaho Elk Management Plan’s acknowledgement that habitat is the single biggest factor impacting wildlife.  

Statewide elk numbers “remain robust” despite human population increases, according to the plan, but “infrastructure development and loss of habitat are influencing elk management and elk densities at the local level in some zones.”  

“ICL is disappointed that Fish and Game has opted for the same convenient removal action, instead of beginning to tackle this habitat concern head-on, especially given that (the wolf management action) wasn’t due to any livestock conflicts,” Abrams said.  

He said habitat concerns persist across Idaho.  

“For the department to continue taking control actions in areas where habitat is a primary driver of elk population is not what most Idahoans want,” he said.  

The Idaho Conservation League has also voiced concerns about the Idaho Gray Wolf Management Plan, which calls for reducing Idaho’s wolf population down to an average of about 500 wolves, with a low of about 350 wolves. 

“We still feel now that (Fish and Game’s) population objectives for wolves statewide, which is 350 going into winter, is far too low to faithfully adhere to their stated objective of having well-represented wolf populations distributed in historically significant areas of the state,” Abrams said.  

Harvest of wolves by trappers has declined in Unit 4 and across the state, according to IDFG, due to a 2024 federal court ruling that recreational wolf trapping and snaring threaten grizzly bears.  

The court’s order prohibits wolf trapping and snaring in Idaho’s Panhandle, Clearwater, Salmon and Upper Snake regions from March 1 to Nov. 30. This order has affected progress toward the state’s wolf population goal, according to IDFG.  

The recent action in Unit 4 was conducted under the guidance of Fish and Game’s 2024-2030 Idaho Elk Management Plan and in alignment with the 2023-2028 Idaho Gray Wolf Management Plan, according to IDFG.