Resurgent Wolves Now Considered Pests by Some
By JIM ROBBINS
DANIEL, Wyo. — The cattle are down in the valley now, but as the snow here melts and winter is nudged out of the mountains, they will move to pasture in the wild meadows and timberland between the Gros Ventre and Wind River Mountains.
That is where wolves kill the most calves, said Charles Price. Mr. Price and the 15 other ranchers in the Upper Green River Cattlemen's Association, as well as others in the state, want the freedom to kill wolves without any restrictions. "That's the way we took care of them before," he said. "It's the way my grandparents took care of them. They roped them, shot them, anyway to get rid of them."
The federal government, however, will not allow that. Wolves here are descendants of the animals reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in 1994, which have since repopulated parts of the surrounding states: Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. They have done so well that the federal Fish and Wildlife Service wants to take them off the list of endangered species.
The service has handed management responsibilities to Montana and Idaho, which have a plan to assure the wolf's survival.
Wyoming, however, has a different idea. Outside of Yellowstone and federal wilderness areas, wolves would be considered predators.
"Essentially, they would be managed as pests," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Helena, Mont. "Anyone could kill them at any time, anywhere, by any means."
Wyoming cannot go back to the days of the Old West, Mr. Bangs said. "The reason wolves became extinct is because we killed them all," he said. "The only reason they came back is because we regulated killing." Federal wildlife officials have refused to remove the wolf from the endangered list until the state comes up with another plan.
Wyoming, however, has gone to court to force the federal government to approve its plan. It lost the first round in Federal District Court and appealed. [Oral arguments were held on Monday in a federal appeals court in Salt Lake City.]
Terry Cleveland, the director of Wyoming Game and Fish, said he believed that the state's plan assured the wolf's protection. Any time wolf numbers dropped too low, Mr. Cleveland said, the state could end the unregulated hunting. "We have all the safeguards in place," he said.
The executive director of the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association, Jim Magagna, said a predator designation was a legal category that would keep wolves under the auspices of the state's Agriculture Department rather than the state wildlife agency, a crucial difference.
"Aerial gunning is a critical tool to control wolves," Mr. Magagna said. "We wouldn't be assured of that ability under anything but a predator designation."
The wolf population has grown in Wyoming. In 2004 the Fish and Wildlife Service counted 89 wolves in the state outside the park; last year there were 118. Mr. Price, the rancher, believes there are considerably more.
The grazing association has increased the number of riders — cowboys who watch over herds — to six from four where wolves are most numerous. But that has not stopped the killing. In 2004, the association said, 18 calves were killed, along with five yearlings and one cow. Last year, six calves and three yearlings were taken. The number was down because federal agency hunters shot nine wolves in the basin, but the overall trend is still up, Mr. Price said.
Mr. Bangs said ranchers had options, even under federal rules, to kill marauding wolves. Where problems are chronic, ranchers are given permits to shoot on sight. And he said federal agents were aggressive about killing wolves where there are problems. Last year, 41 were killed by the wildlife service in Wyoming.
Assuming wolves are delisted, states can control populations by allowing hunting and trapping, if they are carefully regulated and at least 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves are maintained in each state. Montana and Idaho have agreed, and have taken over day-to-day authority. But they have been thwarted in their effort to allow hunting. Wolves in the three states are considered one population, and until Wyoming agrees to an acceptable plan, the wolf cannot be delisted.
"The continued listed status is problematic for us," said Carolyn Sime, gray wolf program coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "The piece that's missing is hunting and trapping to fine-tune wolf numbers and distribution. While the wolf is listed, that option is off the table."
If wolves are delisted, Ms. Sime said, there are methods to control them without having to classify them as predators.
While wolves have made a comeback in the northern Rockies and are poised to return to Washington, Oregon and other states, their presence is far from accepted by ranchers in the region.
They tell stories of wolves howling around their homes in the night, of coming home to find frightened cows with wolf tracks in the snow around them, of cows with battered feet who have trampled calves as they fled approaching wolves.
"It makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck to hear 75 or 80 cows screaming at the top of their lungs," says Randy Peprich, a rancher near Livingston, Mont., north of Yellowstone. "I never heard a cow scream until the wolves came back."
Mr. Price said: "Wolves have no business in this country. It was almost a crime to re-introduce wolves in Yellowstone. There's no place here for them."
But Mr. Bangs said, "People wanted them back, so we brought them back." There is more to a wilderness and the wild than commercial uses like ranching, he added. "Wolves are highly valued."
N. Y. Times
DANIEL, Wyo. — The cattle are down in the valley now, but as the snow here melts and winter is nudged out of the mountains, they will move to pasture in the wild meadows and timberland between the Gros Ventre and Wind River Mountains.
That is where wolves kill the most calves, said Charles Price. Mr. Price and the 15 other ranchers in the Upper Green River Cattlemen's Association, as well as others in the state, want the freedom to kill wolves without any restrictions. "That's the way we took care of them before," he said. "It's the way my grandparents took care of them. They roped them, shot them, anyway to get rid of them."
The federal government, however, will not allow that. Wolves here are descendants of the animals reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in 1994, which have since repopulated parts of the surrounding states: Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. They have done so well that the federal Fish and Wildlife Service wants to take them off the list of endangered species.
The service has handed management responsibilities to Montana and Idaho, which have a plan to assure the wolf's survival.
Wyoming, however, has a different idea. Outside of Yellowstone and federal wilderness areas, wolves would be considered predators.
"Essentially, they would be managed as pests," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Helena, Mont. "Anyone could kill them at any time, anywhere, by any means."
Wyoming cannot go back to the days of the Old West, Mr. Bangs said. "The reason wolves became extinct is because we killed them all," he said. "The only reason they came back is because we regulated killing." Federal wildlife officials have refused to remove the wolf from the endangered list until the state comes up with another plan.
Wyoming, however, has gone to court to force the federal government to approve its plan. It lost the first round in Federal District Court and appealed. [Oral arguments were held on Monday in a federal appeals court in Salt Lake City.]
Terry Cleveland, the director of Wyoming Game and Fish, said he believed that the state's plan assured the wolf's protection. Any time wolf numbers dropped too low, Mr. Cleveland said, the state could end the unregulated hunting. "We have all the safeguards in place," he said.
The executive director of the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association, Jim Magagna, said a predator designation was a legal category that would keep wolves under the auspices of the state's Agriculture Department rather than the state wildlife agency, a crucial difference.
"Aerial gunning is a critical tool to control wolves," Mr. Magagna said. "We wouldn't be assured of that ability under anything but a predator designation."
The wolf population has grown in Wyoming. In 2004 the Fish and Wildlife Service counted 89 wolves in the state outside the park; last year there were 118. Mr. Price, the rancher, believes there are considerably more.
The grazing association has increased the number of riders — cowboys who watch over herds — to six from four where wolves are most numerous. But that has not stopped the killing. In 2004, the association said, 18 calves were killed, along with five yearlings and one cow. Last year, six calves and three yearlings were taken. The number was down because federal agency hunters shot nine wolves in the basin, but the overall trend is still up, Mr. Price said.
Mr. Bangs said ranchers had options, even under federal rules, to kill marauding wolves. Where problems are chronic, ranchers are given permits to shoot on sight. And he said federal agents were aggressive about killing wolves where there are problems. Last year, 41 were killed by the wildlife service in Wyoming.
Assuming wolves are delisted, states can control populations by allowing hunting and trapping, if they are carefully regulated and at least 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves are maintained in each state. Montana and Idaho have agreed, and have taken over day-to-day authority. But they have been thwarted in their effort to allow hunting. Wolves in the three states are considered one population, and until Wyoming agrees to an acceptable plan, the wolf cannot be delisted.
"The continued listed status is problematic for us," said Carolyn Sime, gray wolf program coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "The piece that's missing is hunting and trapping to fine-tune wolf numbers and distribution. While the wolf is listed, that option is off the table."
If wolves are delisted, Ms. Sime said, there are methods to control them without having to classify them as predators.
While wolves have made a comeback in the northern Rockies and are poised to return to Washington, Oregon and other states, their presence is far from accepted by ranchers in the region.
They tell stories of wolves howling around their homes in the night, of coming home to find frightened cows with wolf tracks in the snow around them, of cows with battered feet who have trampled calves as they fled approaching wolves.
"It makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck to hear 75 or 80 cows screaming at the top of their lungs," says Randy Peprich, a rancher near Livingston, Mont., north of Yellowstone. "I never heard a cow scream until the wolves came back."
Mr. Price said: "Wolves have no business in this country. It was almost a crime to re-introduce wolves in Yellowstone. There's no place here for them."
But Mr. Bangs said, "People wanted them back, so we brought them back." There is more to a wilderness and the wild than commercial uses like ranching, he added. "Wolves are highly valued."
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