A gray wolf with a collar.

The Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board at its Nov. 22 meeting voted to pay USDA Wildlife Services to conduct collaring operations this winter.

Directors of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the state Department of Agriculture co-chair the board. It is funded by the Legislature, Fish and Game and the livestock industry.

Collaring aims to optimize wolf control and in turn reduce livestock depredation.

Twelve wolves were collared during last year’s pilot program. Six remain active.

The board last year contracted with Leading Edge Aviation LLC for helicopter capture services. The six-day project cost $148,635.

This winter’s collaring work, expected to start around Jan. 1, aims to collar 20 wolves in areas of chronic livestock depredation. Work is anticipated in portions of nine counties: Adams, Blaine, Boise, Butte, Custer, Gem, Lemhi, Washington and Valley.

The board also considered private contracting, which Fish and Game and other meeting participants said often comes with higher helicopter, veterinary and insurance costs. Contracting also likely requires consultation with the state Division of Purchasing.

The board voted to pay USDA Wildlife Services up to $85,000.

Approving a higher amount could have allowed for more wolf-collaring work or additional money if needed without having to go back to the board, Phil Davis, a Cascade rancher who has lost cattle to wolves, said in an interview.

The dollar amount the board approved reflects Wildlife Services’ lower costs while providing more overall flexibility, said Ed Schriever, Fish and Game director.

Wolf capture and collaring operations involve helicopters and airplanes, personnel, veterinary services and immobilization drugs as well as radio collars and data. Fish and Game provides collars, logistics services and data management.

Wildlife Services already does collaring in Montana and has personnel and equipment available for deployment in Idaho.

Wildlife Services has worked with the Idaho board since the board’s 2014 inception, conducting livestock depredation investigations and wolf control actions. Fish and Game must authorize lethal control actions.

Fewer depredations occurred in the most recent reporting period, July through September, Wildlife Services State Director Jared Hedelius said. The agency conducted 77 investigations, 27 of which it confirmed as wolf-caused. In the year-earlier period, it conducted 104 investigations and confirmed 69 as wolf-caused.

Wolf harvest by trapping and hunting increased last year where wolf-livestock conflicts are chronic or where elk populations remain below Fish and Game objectives, though total harvest did not change much, Schriever said.