Fourth-generation rancher Joe Purdy’s Eureka, Montana, property is busy, and not just because of his cattle. There are the campers he allows to set up tents overnight, the range riders on horseback and ATV patrolling the property, and the wildlife cameras he’s installed. The hours from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. are the most important to make sure there are people around, he says. That’s when the wolves like to hunt.
Under federal Endangered Species Act protection, the gray wolf has repopulated pockets of the West from Yellowstone to Washington; in total, about 6,000 wolves have established packs in eight states. Wolves have done so well that they’ve been delisted in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and the eastern portions of Oregon and Washington. But in March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed rescinding protection of most gray wolves in the Lower 48 (the Mexican gray wolf, which ranges in New Mexico and Arizona, is exempt from the proposed rule), which would put management in the control of states and tribes. Fish and Wildlife is accepting public comments through May 14.
The potential delisting has reignited debates on who should manage wolves, and how it should be done. Lifting Endangered Species Act protections nationwide could mean more deterrence options in the event wolves prey on cattle, including the possibility of killing the wolves, which many ranchers welcome. But Purdy and others look to more sustainable, nonlethal practices that prove ranchers can coexist with these carnivores — keeping both wolves and cattle alive in the process.
Killing wolves, after all, has its downsides for ranchers. “Lethal removal only has so much effect,” said Jay Shepherd, who runs the Northeast Washington Wolf Cattle Collaborative. “It lasts for up to about five years, and then those areas where wolves have been removed … they come back and find that empty habitat and fill it again.” Furthermore, Washington State University researchers found that killing wolves can upend pack dynamics in a way that makes wolves even more likely to target cattle.
So some ranchers are considering other options, and more people on the landscape is a promising one. By deploying range riders and allowing campers on his land, Purdy is constantly keeping his cattle company — and deterring wolves in the process.
“I think we’re getting a better handle on it by spending more time up there during the different times of year and the different times of day,” Purdy said.
Cole Mannix, associate director of the Western Landowners Alliance, says ranchers can learn from each other when it comes to their options in dealing with wolves. In addition to those tactics Purdy has used, Mannix suggests building fences, using flagging or sound to spook wildlife, and rotating cattle out of known wildlife habitat during certain times of year, such as calving season.
Shepherd, who grew up raising cattle and also leads Conservation Northwest’s wolf program, says convincing ranchers to adopt these practices takes careful negotiation, because they do come at a cost. “It’s like saying: Your kid’s college fund or the money you’re saving to replace your pickup, we now want you to spend that on wolf recovery,” he said.
Purdy offers an example of those efforts paying off, however. Wolves were delisted in Montana in 2011, but his methods have kept both cattle and predators relatively safe. Last year, he lost just one animal. That’s a significant improvement over the worst year, 2009, when he lost 17 and many cows miscarried — an event some believe is exacerbated by the stress of increased wolf presence.
Wolves were virtually eliminated throughout the West until reintroduction began in 1995 in Yellowstone National Park. Thus, Purdy, now 62, has undergone a generational adjustment. “Three generations we ranched together, and we didn’t have those predator situations until these last 15, 20 years,” he said.
“[Loss of livestock] is going to happen; the only thing we can do is try to eliminate [that outcome] as much as possible,” he continued. “Spending time to encourage the wolves to change their pattern, that’s the biggest thing I think we can do.”
While some of the wolves are brazen enough to still attack cattle within a football field’s length from the ranch house, and even to approach a vehicle in which ranch hands were having lunch, Purdy is hopeful that, over time, the animals will learn that it’s safer and easier to go after the region’s abundant, wild prey such as white-tailed deer and rabbits instead.
Purdy and Shepherd agree that lethal response is still necessary in some cases. Talk of delisting and lethal options has ignited longstanding angst between environmentalists, who want to see no wolf harmed, and ranchers, who can’t afford losing cattle to hungry wolf packs. Many ranchers don’t even want to discuss the issue on the record.
That’s one reason Shepherd believes states should adopt targeted removal of wolves, not general hunting seasons. Not only does he feel it’s more effective, but it’s also more acceptable socially.
“The sooner we get toward a long-term, sustainable solution … that reduces this level of social conflict, I think we will be better off,” he said.
Shepherd’s hope is that, should the federal delisting occur, ranchers in areas where the wolf is newly delisted — think California and southern Oregon — could benefit from nonlethal lessons his organization has applied in areas like Washington’s northeast counties, where the majority of the state’s wolf packs reside and the species currently lacks federal protection. In this case, ranchers can adjust to predators with the assurance that lethal action could be taken if necessary.
Livestock, land, and wildlife managers throughout the West agree that more efforts to teach ranchers nonlethal options are needed to support wolves while reducing damage to livelihoods — a balance Lesli Allison, executive director of the Western Landowners Alliance, calls “one of the greatest conservation challenges of our time.”
And the challenge isn’t going away. This month, Washington officials confirmed that a wolf pack has established itself on the west slope of the Cascades — the first since the 1930s. As the wolf population expands, Shepherd and others hope nonlethal management does, too.
