Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Wolves, like this on in the Cascade Mountains, are receiving the ire of the Yakima County Farm Bureau even though only one livestock loss has been attributed to wolves in Washington in more than five years.

Tempers flare in Pacific Northwest – Though there are fewer than 30 wolves in Washington, and the state’s wolf management plan has only recently been approved, wolf opponents are already pushing for more aggressive control actions. Legislators are proposing a significant decrease in the fine for illegally killing wolves from $4,000 to $1,000 and relisting wolves as a “game” animal instead of endangered. The Yakima County Farm Bureau is opposing the state’s wolf plan outright. Some of their members want all wolves to be eliminated, even though there has only been one confirmed livestock loss to wolves since they returned to Washington more than five years ago.

At least some landowners are taking a more measured approach. Dan Studley, quoted in the Yakima Herald, says he’s not too concerned about wolves:

As the story points out, Defenders has already chipped in $15,000 in start-up funds to help Washington get a compensation program off the ground. We are also organizing another series of workshops to help local, state, federal and tribal wildlife managers enhance their skills in field investigations and nonlethal deterrents.

Montana county considers wolf bounty – This week, anti-wolf zealots in Jefferson County, Montana are pushing to reinstate a wolf bounty program that would pay people for killing wolves. Only three cattle were lost to wolves in Jefferson County in 2011 according to state compensation payment records, but rather than taking steps to learn to live with wolves, county commissioners are considering a bounty to encourage all wolves to be killed. But not all residents of Jefferson County are on board with the proposed bounty. One hunter, quoted in the local paper, said that the state should be given a chance to manage wolves responsibly before counties take more aggressive action. Another person suggested that cougars and coyotes are likely taking more elk calves and fawns than wolves are, and another said bounties often amount to legalized fraud. Read more in the Helena Independent Record.

Wood River overseas – This summer we were lucky enough to have Pete Haswell, a young biologist from the UK Wolf Conservation Trust, volunteering on the Wood River Wolf Project. He spent his days and nights with our field team tracking wolves and sheep through the central Idaho wilderness, and when he returned, he had some great stories to tell. One night he came within 60 feet of a wolf in the Phantom Hill pack and exchanged late night howls with other packs as well. More importantly, he got to learn first-hand about the nonlethal tools we use to deter wolf attacks, which he hopes to utilize in his work in Eastern Europe. Pete also created an interactive map to keep track of known wolf locations in relation to grazing bands of sheep. Read more about Pete’s adventures in Idaho in the latest issue of Wolf Print, the quarterly magazine of UKWCT (see pg. 14). Pete also wrote a blog post for Defenders during Wolf Awareness Week.

Video of OR7 in his Oregon days – While OR7 remains in northern California in the shadows of Mt. Lassen, his legend continues to spread. This week a video surfaced of the lone male wolf from his Oregon days. The goal of the group named “Oregon Wolf Education” that sponsored the video is “to educate people on how the recent invasion of the Canadian gray wolf is affecting our lives.” But the video also tells a different story of a lone wolf that repeatedly moved through cattle pastures without causing trouble, due at least in part to the effective use of a range rider. Decide for yourself whether the short video portrays OR7 as a serious threat or just another wild animal sharing the landscape:

OR-7 from Pahsimeroi Pictures on Vimeo.

And in case you missed it, OR7 has also made news in the New York Times and TIME magazine!

What does the data show? – Understanding wolf behavior and their interactions with both wild ungulates and livestock isn’t easy. Wolves share the landscape with other animals that target the same prey, so it takes some careful analysis to determine the impact of any one species on another. That’s why Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is leading an in-depth study of predator-prey interactions in the Bitterroot Valley, where elk herds have declined in recent years. There are two years remaining in the study, but so far state biologists are learning that cougars in the area may be having a bigger impact on elk populations than wolves (last year, cougars killed 13 tagged elk calves and wolves killed three). The results of the study should yield important information about the relative impact of wolves on elk. Read more in this feature story from the Missoula Independent.

Gibbon pack in Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of U.S. National Park Service.

When the weather breaks – Some bad weather passing through Idaho may be the only thing keeping 50 wolves alive in the Lolo zone of Clearwater National Forest. Idaho Fish and Game officials have said the state is ready to move forward with plans to remove up to two-thirds of the wolves in the area by aerial gunning, just as soon as the weather improves. The aerial gunning plan was approved by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission at its December meeting and will be carried out by federal agents with Wildlife Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hunters and trappers have already killed at least 260 wolves so far this season, yet the state is still targeting more wolves in order to boost elk numbers for hunters. We’re pushing the state to abandon this unwarranted and unscientific wolf-killing plan. We’re also calling on the Obama administration to reform Wildlife Services and stop wasting precious tax dollars to artificially boost game populations. American taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to subsidize hunters. It’s time for Idaho to start managing wolves responsibly as they manage other wildlife instead of trying to kill as many wolves as possible.

Crossing a line – Defenders isn’t the only group expressing concerns over Montana’s proposal to extend the wolf hunt in the Bitterroot Valley until April 1. Two members of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission voted against the proposal. Commissioner Ron Moody has taken it a step further by openly criticizing the proposal, which he says would cross the line of ethical fair-chase hunting. Hunters aren’t typically allowed to shoot animals during their reproductive season when pregnant mothers are relatively defenseless. He also points out that wolves are just one of many factors that have reduced the size of the elk herd in the Bitterroot. He says bad winters, over-harvest of cow elk in prior years, others predators and habitat fragmentation have all conspired against elk.

Listen to a feature interview with Moody on Montana Public Radio (jump to the 9-minute mark):

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In a column titled “Hatred of predators reaches ridiculous fervor,” Nick Gevock at the Montana Standard also laments the kill-all-the-wolves mentality en vogue across much of Montana. He writes:

“The Grey” area between fact and fiction – Though we’re still hoping “The Grey” will flop at the box office, the movie continues to garner attention for its sensational (and violent) portrayal of wolves. Our wolf expert Suzanne Stone explained to Greenwire why even fictional tales can do wolves a disservice:

Case in point: in the same article, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) perpetuates the ridiculous myth that wolves eat children. That’s just the kind of irrational fear that anti-wolf extremists are only too eager to spread. Now “The Grey” is making their job easier.

OR7 on the move? – The current whereabouts of OR7 (aka, Journey) are unknown, though he is believed to still be roaming northern California in search of a mate. California Department of Fish and Game published a map of the lone wolf’s journey but is updating it infrequently to protect OR7 from poachers.

Unfortunately, California wildlife managers can’t protect OR7 (or any wolves, for that matter) from the whims of Hollywood, whose directors seem eternally hell-bent on portraying wolves as vicious man-eaters. In the latest incarnation of cinematic “lupophobia,” Liam Neeson and his team of marooned roughnecks must fend off a pack of snarling wolves in the frozen Alaskan backcountry.

In an LA Times story yesterday, Director Joe Carnahan says “The Grey” was actually intended to show the dangers of man’s intrusion into nature, not to sully public perception of wolves. Defenders’ California Director Kim Delfino was quoted, pointing out that the wolves in the movie do not reflect reality since they rarely ever attack humans. But at this critical juncture for wolves, reinforcing erroneous stereotypes of wild wolves as man-hunting demons only makes our job of protecting and restoring them more difficult. Defenders has already sent letters to the movie studios asking them to help educate moviegoers with the real facts about wolves. Check out our mythbusting fact sheet and help us spread the truth.

Montana considers extending wolf hunt – Since September, Montana hunters have killed at least 137 wolves, not including wolves killed by state and federal wildlife agents in response to livestock depredations. The hunting season has already been extended once by Montana’s Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission. Now they’ve given initial approval for another extension that would allow hunters to kill wolves in the Bitterroot Valley until April 1, right before pregnant mothers begin denning and have pups.

Wolves hunt two bull elk in Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of the U.S. National Park Service.

In spite of a $100 bounty on wolves from the Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, only three wolves have been killed so far in the area, which has a quota of 18 wolves that can be legally harvested during the hunt. By repeatedly extending the wolf hunt, Montana wildlife managers appear to be using their quotas as population reduction targets rather than upper limits for management purposes. By proposing to extend the hunt just in the Bitterroots, they’re no longer targeting wolves that are harassing livestock in order to help ranchers but simply responding to hunters who complain that wolves are taking too many elk. However, elk herds in this area were declining for a multitude of reasons well before wolves returned. In fact, researchers have determined that the primary cause of decline was increased harvest of female elk by humans, specifically to reduce the population. Further, extending the hunt into peak breeding season could prevent dispersing wolves from replacing breeding wolves killed earlier in the year.

Overall, we’d like to see Montana taking a much more measured approach, especially while the impacts of statewide wolf hunting are still largely unknown. The FWP Commission is accepting comments through Feb. 13, and final adoption will be considered at the Feb. 16 meeting. More details here.

Suzanne on the radio – As promised, here’s the link to our wolf expert Suzanne Stone’s interview from last week on the Christopher Gabriel Program on AM 970 WDAY. She explains why the return of wolves to California is such a big deal, the role of wolves in the ecosystem, and the potential to restore wolves in other parts of the country. And if you just want to hear her howl, jump to the 21-minute mark!

On a chilly bright blue sky day on top of the Vermillion Cliffs in northern Arizona, I finally got to see first-hand the results of a project I worked on while at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the late 1990s.  I stood on the edge of the cliffs with colleagues from Defenders and conservation partners from AZ Fish and Game and The Peregrine Fund watching critically endangered California condors soaring in the wind updrafts and sitting on boulders sunning themselves in the crisp morning’s sun.  They are certainly spectacular birds. Until you actually see one of these massive creatures on the wing, it’s hard to truly visualize just how incredible these birds are and how precarious their future still is.  They are almost magical to watch as they ride the thermals against the strikingly severe cliff sides near the Grand Canyon.

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Jamie Rappaport Clark

Defenders CEO Jamie Rappaport Clark watches condors soaring

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Condors perched on Vermillion Cliffs

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Display showing the wingspan of a condor

Jamie Rappaport Clark

Though there have been some birds now born in the wild since the original releases from captivity over a decade ago, most still wear the obvious brand of human help in the form of tags and transmitters to track their movements in northern Arizona and southern Utah.   It is only with significant human support that we are making headway in returning these incredible flying creatures back to their rightful place in the wild.  All of the birds now in the wild still require supplemental feeding and are monitored regularly to manage the leading ongoing cause of their deaths today; the ingestion of lead from carcasses and gut piles of animals hunted throughout their range.  As carrion eaters (consumers of dead animals), the lead often left behind by hunters in carcasses or gut piles is ingested during feeding and accumulates quickly to deadly levels in the birds.  If we are seeing it at such high levels on an ongoing basis in condors, just imagine all the other wildlife that feed in a similar fashion.  It is abundantly clear that lead and wildlife are not a good mix for long term survival and sustainability.

AZ Game and Fish and The Peregrine Fund have been working diligently through voluntary ammunition swap programs (free exchanging of lead bullets for copper or steel).  In addition, they have an around the clock program of supplemental feeding and monitoring of the birds’ lead levels with intervention by trapping and treatment to remove lead from the systems of those birds most affected.  Regardless, the condor population overall is still in real trouble.

Though there has been a positive response from hunters with the ammunition swap out program in Arizona, there is no such opportunity in Utah and that makes recovery of the condor all the more complicated and frustrating.   The birds range from their “home base” at the Vermillion Cliffs but are now flying further and further away into Utah where there are no controls or incentives to use other than lead shot while hunting.  Until the lead is out of ammunition used to hunt wildlife, it will continue to be a labor intensive uphill battle to save the condors.

It’s time for ammunition manufacturers to step up and do what was done for waterfowl decades ago.  Conversion away from lead should not affect hunter success, but it will do a world of good for condors and other critters.  The science is clear, now we need to encourage manufacturers and hunters to step up.

How coal is killing America’s freshwater mussels

Mussels act as a water filter, keeping our rivers clean and healthy. But species like the tan riffleshell can no longer keep up with coal pollution. More than a third of freshwater mussel species are critically imperiled or already extinct.

Who cares about some little mussel that inhabits a few rivers in eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia? Well, if you happen to live in the area, news that the tan riffleshell is on the verge of extinction could mean that your water isn’t safe to drink. For the rest of us, it’s yet another sign that pollution is taking a very serious toll on the environment.

These endangered mussels are the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” for Appalachian rivers, and they’re just one of 10 species identified in a new report released today called Fueling Extinction: How Dirty Energy Drives Wildlife to the Brink.

Like all freshwater mussels, the tan riffleshell makes its living by eating small particles in the water. These so-called “filter feeders” remove sediment and other pollutants, thereby keeping our streams healthy enough to support other plants and animals, including ourselves. So when these little shellfish start disappearing, that means one of nature’s vital water filters is broken and can longer keep up with all the pollution being dumped into the river.

North America once boasted some 300 species of freshwater mussels, according to the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society. But as a result of land development, over-harvesting and chronic pollution over the last 200 years, 38 mussel species are already thought to be extinct and another 77 are considered imperiled.

Today, the greatest threat to mussels comes from various by-products of coal mining and coal-burning power plants. These pollutants contaminate our waterways with heavy metals and other environmental toxins that can kill mussels as well as countless other plants and animals.

Mussels aren’t the only ones threatened by fossil fuel development, however. More familiar imperiled species include:

• Bowhead Whale: The remainder of the endangered bowhead whale population is at risk from contaminants and noise from off shore oil drilling and deadly collisions with ships. An oil spill could easily wipe out the small population of whales, which exists only in Arctic waters.
  

  This Kemp's ridley sea turtle was rescued from the Gulf oil spill.

• Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle: According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Kemp’s ridley is the most seriously endangered of all sea turtles, and they only breed in Gulf waters. In the immediate aftermath of the Gulf oil disaster, 156 sea turtle deaths were recorded – most of them Kemp’s ridleys.
• Whooping Crane: There are just 437 whooping cranes in the wild today, after overcoming near extinction in the 1940s. But the proposed Keystone Pipeline would run along the crane’s entire migratory path from Canada to Texas, and could destroy the flock with toxic waste , collisions and electrocutions from power lines, and the risk of oil spills.

Drilling in the Arctic. Spilling oil in the Gulf. Building a pipeline across the country. Removing mountaintops to get at more coal. All of these actions have dire consequences for our land and wildlife. Fossil fuels are dirty and dangerous, and they’re pushing many at-risk plant and animal species toward extinction. Oil company executives take home millions of dollars every year while the rest of us have to clean up the mess. It’s time to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and rescue these species from the brink.

To learn more about the top 10 U.S. species threatened by fossil fuels, visit http://fuelingextinction.org.

Read more about the importance of freshwater mussels on Defenders blog and in our magazine.

Watch the interview below with “mussel man” Monte McGregor, a malacologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources:

Wolves in town – Residents of west Jackson, Wyoming, had some uninvited guests drop by this week when three wolves were spotted on the outskirts of a subdivision. The area is not far from Grand Teton National Park, so the locals are already accustomed to seeing wildlife moseying through town. Elk commonly move through the area seeking refuge from wild predators. But this marks the first time that wolves have been seen in a primarily residential part of Jackson. While the wolves are not considered a threat to humans, residents should take steps to remove any attractants and protect their pets.

As of now, wolves are still protected in Wyoming under the Endangered Species Act, which means they cannot be harassed or harmed unless a person’s life is in danger. But that may not be the case for much longer. The comment period closes today on the federal proposal to strip protections for wolves in Wyoming that would allow wolves to be shot on sight across the majority of the state, including on some national forest lands that provide excellent wolf habitat and where wildlife is supposed to be a priority. In the latest wrinkle, federal park officials are raising concerns that the current state management plan would allow wolves to be hunted in along the Rockefeller Parkway that connects Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park.

OR7 stirs the California pot – OR7 (aka, Journey) has been in California only two weeks, but his appearance has been greeted with both cheers and fears. The lone dispersing male has been on the move, making his way into northern Lassen County early in the week. Meanwhile, at a meeting in Yreka with a capacity crowd, Siskiyou County supervisors listened to comments and concerns of local residents. Some urged the county to ban wolves outright, while others pleaded for tolerance and celebrated the return as a momentous occasion.

State and federal wildlife managers have been attending a series of meetings in northern California to address questions about the return of wolves and meeting with Defenders and other stakeholders in Sacramento. More information can be found on the state’s new wolf website at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/nongame/wolf/

And in case you missed it, here’s Brian Williams’ report on OR7 featured on NBC Nightly News last Friday:

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Don’t turn that dial – Wolves were featured in a flurry of radio shows this week. First, American Public Media did an in-depth interview with Carter Niemeyer, former wolf trapper and recovery coordinator, who published a memoir about his experiences. His accounts are brutally honest, including often graphic detail of his gruesome depredation investigations. But his story reveals the complexities of dealing with both ranchers and wolf advocates during an extremely volatile period.

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Wednesday, Montana Public Radio aired a feature story about Nathan Varley who runs a wolf tourism business that operates in Yellowstone. Nathan regularly leads wolf tours focused on educating park visitors about basic wolf biology and behavior. Listen below, starting at the 15-minute mark:

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Yesterday, Defenders’ wolf expert Suzanne Stone did an extended interview with Christopher Gabriel, a popular talk radio show host in Fargo, North Dakota. She explained the importance of wolves in California, the ecological role of wolves, and the importance of reducing conflicts with livestock to promote social tolerance. And of course, she taught Chris how to howl. (Archived show coming soon!)

High school students perform the Quileute "wolf dance" while facing off against a visiting amabassador wolf from Mission Wolf.

Twilight in DC – The shape-shifting “werewolves” in the Twilight Saga are pure fantasy, but the Quileute tribe on which the story is based is not. These Native Americans have a long and rich history living on the Olympic Peninsula in modern-day Washington State that dates back to a time when real wolves still existed. In fact, the Quileute creation legend is that the original tribal members were transformed from wolves into humans. That’s why wolf iconography and ritual dances remain an important part of Quileute culture today. (Suzanne even got to witness the sacred “wolf dance” during a visit last summer when she met with tribal leaders to discuss the return of wolves!)

An exhibition of Quileute art opens today at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Click here for more details.