Officials want to kill Lolo wolves

BOISE (AP) -- Idaho wants to kill dozens of wolves it blames for eating too many elk in rugged north-central Idaho.

Department of Fish and Game deputy director Jim Unsworth said his agency will ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for permission to kill wolves in the Lolo area, near the Montana border. Elk numbers aren't meeting agency goals and Fish and Game blames the big predators, along with habitat problems.

The agency had hoped hunters would help, but that's likely no longer an option after U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy restored Endangered Species Act protections Aug. 5.

Oops: Farmer tends pot plants

JEROME, Idaho (AP) -- Authorities say a southern Idaho farmer unknowingly watered and fertilized more than 300 marijuana plants while tending to his corn fields.

The Jerome County sheriff's office said the farmer found the plot of pot growing between his tall, green stalks of unripened corn early Aug. 9 and called authorities.

The sheriff's office says the 314 low-grade marijuana plants are valued at $628,000 and would have been ready for plucking in the next month or so -- before the farmer harvested his corn in September or October.

The plants have been confiscated as evidence.

Authorities have ruled out the farmer as a suspect, saying there have been at least two other similar reports of suspicious activity in local fields during the past year.

Simpson hasn't given up wilderness hopes

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson says he hasn't given up hope on his plan to create a new central Idaho wilderness.

The six-term Republican told the Twin Falls Times-News this week that despite opposition, "strange things happen in legislative sessions."

Last month, his bill to create the 330,000-acre wilderness in the Boulder Mountains and White Clouds Peaks got a congressional hearing.

But Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter came out strongly against it, as have pro-motorized recreation groups backed by Albertsons grocery-store heir Joe Scott.

Otter says he'd never support the plan.

Simpson is still trying to revive the proposal, after GOP U.S. Sen. Jim Risch said the bill needs more work to develop consensus between opponents and its proponents, which include the Idaho Conservation League.

Sockeye to swim into Redfish Lake

BOISE (AP) -- Enough endangered sockeye salmon are returning to central Idaho this year that some will be allowed to swim the final few hundred yards into Redfish Lake under their own power, something that hasn't happened in two decades due to dismal spawning runs.

State biologists expect 1,400 to 1,500 sockeye will return to the Stanley region, up from last year's 833.

With room for 1,000 fish at the state hatchery in Eagle, Idaho, however, 400 to 500 will be counted, sampled for genetics -- and then allowed to swim past the trap in Redfish Lake Creek and into the lake.

That last happened in 1990, and this year could begin as early as Sunday, one day after fishing for kokanee ends.

Biologists attribute this year's spike to good ocean and river conditions, actions by dam operators to help young fish survive and the success of a sockeye hatchery program that was targeted for abandonment just four years ago. Only three of the fish from Redfish Lake made their way back into Idaho in 2006.

Some 2,050 sockeye have already been counted at the Snake River's Lower Granite Dam, the last of eight dams along their 900-mile journey. Two-thirds of them could survive the trip that starts in the Pacific Ocean and rises 6,500 vertical feet into Idaho's mountains.