Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Don't mess with these ladies! Suzanne Stone, Kylie Paul and Erin Edge (left to right) get suited up frontier-style for a tour of wolf country.

Wolf women travel the Wild West – These women look tough enough to send Calamity Jane running for the hills! We’re just lucky they’re on our side… Defenders wolf advocates Suzanne Stone, Erin Edge and Kylie Paul have been touring the Yellowstone region this week, visiting project sites and learning more about opportunities for people and wildlife to share the landscape. All three will be busy this summer working with ranchers and other partners to promote and implement nonlethal deterrents that make it easier for wolves and livestock to coexist. Next week, we’ll get the full scoop on their travels!

Setting a bad example – Gallatin County is a gateway to Yellowstone National Park with gorgeous scenery and unparalleled opportunities for outdoor recreation. It’s known for being a hub of environmental activism and wildlife conservation, thanks to all the people working to protect its natural beauty. So we were quite disheartened to see Gallatin commissioners succumbing to anti-wolf rhetoric that has led other counties to post bounties for killing wolves. Gallatin should set an example for the rest of the state, much as Blaine County and Teton County have done in Idaho and Wyoming, by demonstrating ways for people and wildlife to coexist rather than caving to anti-wolf extremism. We’ll be organizing wolf supporters in the area for the county’s May 30 meeting to discourage unnecessary anti-predator policies and improve tolerance for wolves.

Keeping a watchful eye over sheep is vital to deterring wolves.

What not to do with livestock – When you live in wolf country, leaving pregnant ewes and newborn lambs unguarded and spread out in small groups is a recipe for disaster, especially for hungry wolves. As our wolf expert Suzanne Stone told the Idaho Mountain Express, “It’s almost like setting the picnic table, ringing the dinner bell and shooting the guests…It’s not a question of will they have [predation], it’s a question of how much they will lose.” Even though rancher John Peavey has been using fladry, our experts will be helping to implement better nonlethal deterrents on his property this summer as part of the expanded Wood River Wolf Project. That should keep his livestock safe and prevent Wildlife Services from being called in yet again to needlessly kill more native wildlife.

Cool it, Montana! – As I mentioned last week, Montana has given tentative approval to more liberal hunting regulations for next year. See what author and wolf advocate George Wuerthner had to say about the meeting of the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission where the proposed regulations were discussed. His scathing column for The Wildlife News compares the treatment of wolves to the classic Harper Lee story, To Kill a Mockingbird, in which ignorance and irrational fears win the day instead of facts. Wuerthner sums it up like this:

“In the novel to Kill a Mockingbird, the indiscriminate killing of mockingbirds represented the unnecessary and thoughtless destruction of animals and humans based on old biases. The sad truth is that in Montana we are still killing symbolic mockingbirds by our archaic and irrational attitudes towards predators like the wolf.”

If you live in Montana, don’t miss your chance to get your questions answered about the proposed regulations during several public meetings next week (details here). Written comments can also be submitted here until June 25.

In case it somehow slipped off your calendar…today is Endangered Species Day! Last year we celebrated by launching a blog series called “Can’t Live Without ‘Em” to highlight critters small and large that contribute to keeping our planet healthy. This year, we’d like to take a quick trip down memory lane to look at five incredible victories that YOU–our members and supporters–helped us achieve over the last year to protect America’s endangered species.

1. Defeat of Extinction Rider

Last summer, anti-environmentalists in Congress made a sneak attack on more than 260  imperiled plants and animals. A provision was initially included in the FY2012 House Interior Appropriations Bill that would have prevented species awaiting listing from being protected under the Endangered Species Act. Fortunately, the so-called “Extinction Rider” was eventually stripped from the bill thanks to an amendment led by environmental stalwart Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) along with cosponsors Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.) and Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii). The Dicks amendment received solid bipartisan support, demonstrating that Americans from both political parties continue to support strong protections for all our nation’s endangered species.

2. Sharks

Each year, tens of millions of sharks are killed for their fins and tossed back into the ocean. Shark-finning has exacerbated the global decline of shark populations, decimating some species by as much as 90%. Luckily, the state of California passed new legislation last fall to ban the sale, possession, and trade of shark fins. The ban will help raise awareness of the plight of sharks in the United States and help put a stop to the gruesome practice of shark-finning worldwide.

3. A wolf in California?!?

Speaking of California…if you had told us last year that a wolf would soon be living in California, we would have thought you were crazy. But reality is often stranger than fiction. OR-7, the now infamous lone male wolf from Oregon, began his long journey away from home last fall and before the end of year had made it into California. It’s been more than 80 years since wolves were eradicated in California, so the return of OR-7 is a testament to the successful restoration of wolves over the last two decades made possible by the Endangered Species Act.

4. Florida panthers get a brake

Scientists estimate that only 100 to 160 Florida panthers survive in the wild, and each year a dozen or more are killed in vehicle collisions. That’s why Defenders has been working hard to protect the big cats in key corridors where roads criss-cross panther habitat. This spring we scored major victories when Hendry County adopted a lower nighttime speed limit through a state forest to reduce the chance of harming panthers, and a high-tech Roadside Animal Detection System was installed on a dangerous segment of US 41 in the Big Cypress National Preserve to increase panther and motorist safety.

5. More Mexican wolves

The struggling Mexican wolf population in the Southwest increased for the second year in a row, taking recovery another step in the right direction. Mexican gray wolves are some of the most endangered animals on the planet with only 58 surviving in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona. But that’s an improvement from just 50 wolves the year before and only 42 at the end of 2009. With a science-based recovery plan in the works and ever-increasing tolerance from local community members, we’re hoping the population is finally on a path toward long-term sustainability.

Thanks for helping us fight to protect all these endangered animals and countless others!

Click here to see more wildlife success stories.

Will Montana go the way of Idaho? – The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission gave tentative approval last night for more liberal regulations for the 2012-2013 wolf hunting season that begins this fall. Proposed changes include:

• Eliminating quotas in nearly all hunting districts across the state
• Extending the season by two months and into the breeding season
• Allowing wolf trapping for the first time
• Permitting the use of electronic calls that are generally not allowed for other game species
• Tripling the number of wolves that each hunter or trapper can kill.

Why the more aggressive regulations? Intense political pressure. And Montana is responding by proposing a reduction from about 650 wolves down to 425. In doing so, they’re stealing a page from Idaho’s playbook by basing their decision on anti-wolf rhetoric rather than sound science.

However, state wildlife managers are hearing from a lot of wolf supporters too. A number of Defenders’ Montana members did a great job testifying or submitted comments to the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Commission in support of wolves, and Defenders provided official testimony on behalf of all our members and supporters, including over 4500 in Montana.

There is no good justification for Montana to abandon its more measured approach to wolf management. Livestock losses are at a five-year low, and elk populations are still healthy across the vast majority of the state. As our Rocky Mountain Region Director Mike Leahy told the Commission, we’d rather see the state continue to manage the current population sustainably, rather than trying to kill hundreds more wolves next year.

We’ll need the help of all our wolf supporters in Montana to counter the loud anti-wolf voices. FWP is holding five meetings across the state to gather public input, and comments can be submitted until June 25. The Commission is expected to take a final vote at its meeting on July 12.

Help us urge the Commission to oppose the more aggressive hunting regulations to avoid the kind of reckless and unnecessary slaughter of wolves that we’ve seen in Idaho. Wolves are an important part of Montana’s wildlife heritage that should be managed as a valuable resource.

OR7 photographed in California – Despite his best efforts, California’s most notorious (and only) wolf couldn’t shake the lens of the paparazzi. Richard Shinn with the state Department of Fish and Game spotted OR7 in Modoc County on Wednesday and snagged the first photo of the lone male wolf in California:

OR7 has been in California since mid-April on his latest jaunt, but continues to cross between southern Oregon and northern California. So far, he has avoided getting into much trouble. But that hasn’t stopped the usual contingent of radical ranchers from trying to cause a ruckus anyway. In Siskiyou County, one local supervisor has even authored an ordinance that would banish wolves from its borders. The ordinance, if passed, is unlikely to survive legal challenge as it would contradict federal law by allowing ranchers (or anyone else) to shoot “trespassing” wolves. But instead of relying on the courts, Defenders and other conservation groups are already working with state wildlife managers and local ranchers to find ways for wolves and people to coexist.

Keep track of OR7′s movements in California here.

A week of wolf action – In case you missed it last week, Defenders celebrated, er, lamented the one-year anniversary of wolf delisting (see our press release). We launched a week of wolf action to bring critical attention to Idaho’s poor management of wolves that allowed more than 400 wolves to be killed in one year. Our wolf expert Suzanne Stone was interviewed for a short radio segment on Idaho Public News Service to talk more about it. Listen below:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You can help us continue to raise awareness by sharing your concerns about wolf management in the West. Click here to see our full wolf week action toolkit.

Wolf biologists at work in Yellowstone – Studying wolves in Yellowstone National Park is vital to our understanding of the importance of the species and the role wolves play in the greater ecosystem. Thanks to radio and GPS collars used to survey individual packs, each year park biologists gather new information by tracking wolves and monitoring their behavior,. Here’s a look behind the scenes at some of the hard work that goes into collecting data for this fascinating area of research.

Yesterday, wildlife opponents in the U.S. House of Representatives took two deadly swipes at some of America’s most important (and imperiled) animals.

In what has become a troubling tradition in recent years, several members offered amendments to an appropriations bill that undermine critical wildlife protections. This time, the insidious riders were added to the Commerce, Justice and Science funding bill for the next fiscal year.

The first provision, introduced by Rep. Jeff Landry (R-Louisiana.), would prevent the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) from moving forward with a proposal to expand protections for sea turtles. Each year, some 28,000 threatened and endangered sea turtles are caught in shrimp fishing nets that are currently exempted from requirements to use turtle excluder devices, or TEDs, which allow turtles escape from the nets.

Existing regulations have required most shrimp boats to use TEDs since the 1990s, but a loophole in current law exempts some types of trawl fishing from the requirement. In 2010 and 2011, unprecedented numbers of dead sea turtles washed ashore, prompting Defenders and other conservation groups to call for this loophole to be closed.  NMFS agreed and issued a proposed rule to do just that following settlement of litigation (see Defenders press release).  Now, Rep. Landry’s amendment could short-circuit the public’s ability to weigh in on expansion of these protections.

The other appropriations rider, introduced by Rep. Jeff Denham (R-California), would effectively block the recovery of salmon populations in California’s San Joaquin River. Friant Dam, completed in the 1940s, diverted nearly 95 percent of the San Joaquin’s water away from the river for agriculture, wreaking havoc on salmon and putting many commercial fisherman out of business. After years of litigation and negotiations, farmers and fisherman finally reached a settlement agreement to restore salmon to the San Joaquin. However, Denham’s amendment would scuttle restoration efforts by denying much-needed funding. Notably, all parties to the settlement agreement continue to support salmon restoration and oppose legislation that modifies its requirements. Clearly, Rep Denham is catering to outside parties and playing politics with our endangered species.

Defenders will be watching the appropriations process very closely over the coming weeks and months and doing everything we can to make sure these provisions are dropped from the final bill. We’ll need your help to hold members of Congress accountable for maintaining vital funding for protecting all our imperiled wildlife.

Stay tuned…

Between 2000 and 2010, Wildlife Services killed more than one million coyotes.

Last week, a three-part series by Sacramento Bee Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Tom Knudson shed light on the federal agency responsible for killing so-called problem wildlife, an agency that many feel has lurked in the shadows for far too long.

Each year, more than 100,000 animals are killed by Wildlife Services, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the name of livestock protection. More recently, the agency has also been called in to kill wolves and other animals in order to artificially boost game populations for hunters.

But as environmental groups have argued for decades, Wildlife Services’ approach is not only very costly but also often ineffective. Further, their shoot-first mentality perpetuates antiquated ideas about predator control instead of encouraging innovative nonlethal practices that allow people, livestock and wildlife to coexist.

In part one (“The killing agency: Wildlife Services’ brutal methods leave a trail of animal death,” Apr. 29), Knudson describes many of the lethal tools used by Wildlife Services to eliminate unwanted wildlife. Some of the more indiscriminate tools include head snares, leg hold traps, body grip traps and small poison capsules (see infographic), all of which are deadly to numerous species. Unfortunately, they do not always get their intended target. As a result, thousands of animals are “accidentally” killed each year, including some imperiled species as well as beloved pets. One former Wildlife Services trapper-turned-whistleblower reveals that he buried endangered golden eagles that got caught in snares he set for coyotes. Another Oregon family lost their dog to a Wildlife Services trap that was set to catch nutria in a suburban housing development.

Only in rare instances has Wildlife Services helped deploy nonlethal tools. Here, a federal agent demonstrates how to set up fladry to protect sheep from wolves.

Knudson moves on in part two (“Wildlife Services’ deadly force opens Pandora’s box of environmental problems,” Apr. 30) to present a wealth of evidence that suggests simply killing predators isn’t a viable solution. Coyote populations, for example, continue to rebound despite intensive lethal control by Wildlife Services. And in places where coyote populations have declined significantly, rodents, rabbits and feral cats tend to thrive, bringing their own set of problems. As scientists better understand the relationship between species, it has become increasingly clear that trying to wipe out an important native species can put the entire system out of whack.

Defenders wolf expert Suzanne Stone says the agency has completely failed to live up to its mission by relying solely on lethal control.

“If you look at their mandate, we could not have written it better for them,” said Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife, who has worked with Wildlife Services employees to promote nonlethal control. “It’s all about supporting wildlife conservation and promoting humane tools.

“That’s not what is happening on the ground,” Stone said. “Unfortunately, in parts of the western United States it just seems like they are still in the Dark Ages. They go at this as a kill mission. They are at war with wildlife.”

Defenders and several of our colleagues are also mentioned in part three (“Suggestions in changing Wildlife Services range from new practices to outright bans,” May 6), which highlights many of the nonlethal alternatives we have been working hard to promote. Wildlife Services has actually helped develop some of these tools and could play a critical role in educating ranchers about how to use them. But so far, they’re field agents have been unwilling to do so, Suzanne told the Bee.

“Their researchers are some of the top nonlethal specialists in the world,” Stone said. “They are developing and testing a lot of tools. But those tools are more often than not ridiculed by their field agents. They promote using lethal control almost always.”

The Wildlife Services agent who helped out at Lava Lake “was ridiculed, undermined and shunned by his own agency,” she added. “Not only are they undermining the use of this stuff in the field, they are actually undermining states that are trying to use these things.”

Thanks to Tom Knudson and the Sacramento Bee for exposing some of Wildlife Services more insidious practices and offering suggestions for reform. (Click here to read the Bee’s full editorial) We hope that additional scrutiny will inspire change in an agency that could be a helpful partner in promoting coexistence instead of needlessly killing our native wildlife.

Wyoming approves fall wolf hunt – Wyoming’s Fish and Game Commission continued its preparations to hunt wolves this fall by adopting hunting regulations that will allow up to 52 wolves to be killed in the trophy game area surrounding Yellowstone National Park in the northwest part of the state.

The last official count from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated there were at least 328 wolves in Wyoming at the end of 2011 with about 100 of those within Yellowstone National Park. However, state wildlife managers have been saying there are now about 270 wolves outside the park, the majority of which are in the trophy game management area. About 30 wolves are in the predator zone where they can be shot on sight without a hunting license. That means about 30 percent of the wolves outside of Yellowstone are likely to be killed later this year if delisting of wolves in Wyoming moves forward. Until then, the fate of these wolves still rests in the hands of the Obama administration.

A herder and his dog round up a flock of sheep in central Idaho's Wood River Valley.

Wood River Wolf Project turns five – Defenders hosted a project planning meeting last week to finalize plans for our fifth project year in central Idaho. Wolf advocates, ranchers, scientists and county officials are collaborating to implement nonlethal deterrent strategies to prevent losses of wolves and livestock. Five years later, documented sheep losses to wolves in our project area are 90% lower than Idaho average. Additionally, no wolves within the project area have yet been lethally removed for livestock losses, while regionally over 1,600 wolves have been killed in attempt to address losses of more than 3,000 sheep and 1,500 cattle over the last quarter century. Recent research indicates lethal wolf control alone achieves short-term effects but fails to prevent future livestock losses and increases social conflicts concerning wolf losses.  The Wood River Wolf Project demonstrates that nonlethal methods help reduce management costs and social conflict while maintaining the wolf’s important ecological functionality.  At the request of participants, we are working to expand the Wood River Wolf Project to a county-wide scope.  Blaine County has publicly expressed support for wolves and other local wildlife and respects their community members’ diverse interests in agriculture as well as the environment.  The project training workshop kicks off the season on June 20 -21, 2012.  Contact Suzanne Stone, our regional wolf coexistence expert, for more information about these methods and our projects.

Week of wolf action – Stay tuned next week as we look back on the first year of wolf management in the Northern Rockies since federal protections were removed. The inauspicious anniversary on May 5 is a good chance to reflect on aggressive actions taken to limit wolf numbers and an opportunity to reflect on what changes need to be made. Defenders is launching a Week of Wolf Action to share our concerns. We hope you will participate to make sure your voice is heard as well!