Defenders of Wildlife Blog

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!

Jackson wolf put down over safety concerns – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that it euthanized one of two female wolves that had settled near Jackson Hole, Wyoming in recent months. While it’s sad to hear the large white wolf was killed, ultimately a suburban environment like Jackson is not a great place for wolves to be. The longer they stick around, the more likely they are to get into trouble.

Wild wolves tend to keep their distance from people and generally are not a threat. Not a single person has been injured by wolves in the Rockies since they were reintroduced more than 15 years ago. But accidents can happen once wolves become habituated and lose their fear of people.

This incident is a good reminder that people living in wolf country can help protect wolves by scaring them away. Nonlethal hazing, such as yelling, or banging pots and pans, blowing airhorns, and shining lights, is a good way to make sure wild wolves maintain a healthy fear of humans and don’t come around again. Wolves are curious creatures but will usually head for the hills if they feel threatened, especially by humans.

RMEF pays feds to kill more wolves – The Missoulian reported this week that the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation gave $51,000 to Wildlife Services to target more wolves in response to livestock depredations. It’s strange that a wildlife organization is offering money to a federal agency to kill a native species in order to benefit the livestock industry. But the bigger issue is that killing wolves only perpetuates Wildlife Services outdated predator control strategies without addressing any of the underlying problems.

A better alternative is taking proactive steps to prevent conflict before problems arise. Using nonlethal deterrents and innovative husbandry practices is a much better long-term solution. Groups like Defenders of Wildlife and others have been investing in these types of projects for years with impressive results. For the last few years, federal legislation sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester has also made $1 million available annually to support wolf coexistence and livestock compensation in 10 western states. This funding goes a long way to helping ranchers purchase and implement the tools they need to coexist with all our native wildlife.

Three must-see wolf videos – In case you missed the premiere this week on PBS, you can now watch the full episode of River of No Return online (below). The stunning documentary follows Isaac and Bjornen Babcock on their year-long honeymoon tracking wolves through the central Idaho wilderness.

Watch River of No Return on PBS. See more from Nature.

Another fantastic feature-length documentary will be coming to theaters this summer, starting with the world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 31. True Wolf tells the story of a couple that adopted a wolf and spent 16 years touring the country and educating people about wolves. Their story has never been more relevant for addressing the conflicted relationship of man and wolf.

Last but not least, here’s a heartwarming story about a wolf that was rescued in Italy after falling into freezing water. It’s hard to ignore the stark contrast between valiant efforts to keep this one wolf alive and aggressive efforts to eliminate wolves in the Northern Rockies.

A herder and his dogs keep their eyes on a flock of sheep in central Idaho's Wood River Valley.

Just in time for Earth Day, Defenders announced today that it spent over $300,000 in 2011 to help ranchers and communities coexist with wildlife and maintain a healthy environment.

Through our Wildlife Coexistence Partnership program, Defenders implemented or provided incentives for more than 100 projects in nine states across the country, including Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, as well as Mexico. Projects included hiring range riders, creating buffer zones for prairie dogs, paying for electric fencing, purchasing bear-proof food lockers and dumpsters, purchasing trail cameras to document panther activity and compensating ranchers for lost livestock. These projects benefited prairie dogs, bison, gray wolves, grizzly bears, jaguars, polar bears, Florida panthers and Florida black bears.

“The nonlethal tools that we’re testing in places like Idaho, Oregon and Montana are showing that people really can share the landscape with wolves with a little extra effort,” says Suzanne Stone, Defenders Northern Rockies representative in Boise, Idaho. “Fladry, guard dogs, range riders—these basic deterrents have all proven effective when they’re given a chance. We’ve demonstrated that losses to wolves can be dropped to near zero levels if appropriate, proactive steps are taken to prevent conflict. Ranchers are able to safeguard their livestock while helping to maintain healthy populations of native wildlife.”

A relocation project at Thunder Basin National Grassland in eastern Wyoming has helped save prairie dogs from shooting and poisoning.. Photo by Lacy Gray.

“We recognize that living in areas with grizzly bears or roaming bison isn’t always easy. That’s why we’re investing in projects that benefit people and wildlife,” says Jonathan Proctor, Defenders Rocky Mountain representative in Missoula, Montana. “For example, we helped pay for dozens of projects to keep grizzly bears out of chicken coops, beehives, and trash, primarily by installing electric fencing. These methods work and can prevent conflict with minimal upfront cost to individual property owners.”

“By working together, we are able to bring imperiled wildlife back from the brink of extinction and ease the burden on livestock owners and ranchers,” says Craig Miller, Defenders Southwest representative in Tucson, Arizona. “Our coexistence projects offer a bright future for rare and unique wildlife such as wolves and jaguars and also for ranchers and landowners who are taking steps to help make that possible.”

“The Florida panther’s downward spiral toward extinction has been reversed in recent years and the number of cats has been growing. But for the population to continue to recover, it’s essential the endangered cats avoid conflicts with ranchers and livestock as well as pets and farm animals,” says Laurie Macdonald, Defenders Florida director in St. Petersburg. “By exploring coexistence, compensation and incentive programs that work for both panthers and property owners, we can find effective, long-term solutions that protect the big cats and preserve the Florida rancher’s way of life.”

Click to see a larger map of our 2011 Wildlife Coexistnece Partnership projects.

2011 Totals

Minimum number of proactive projects and incentives by region:

• Northern Rockies – 60
• Southwest and Mexico – 20
• Southeast (Florida) – 21
• Great Plains (Kansas & Wyoming) – 3

Number of compensation payments by region:

• Northern Rockies – 38
• Southwest and Mexico – 2

Minimum number of projects and incentives by species:

• Wolf – 34
• Grizzly bear – 39
• Prairie dog – 3
• Bison – 5
• Jaguar – 2
• Florida panther – 10
• Florida black bear – 11

Number of compensation payments by species:

• Grizzly bear – 31
• Wolf – 9

This Florida panther was caught on camera as part of a monitoring study.

Minimum amount spent on various project and incentive types:

• Fladry –$20,497
• Range riders – $65,960
• Technical field assistance, workshops and information – $126,509
• Compensation for livestock depredation – $56,650
• Dumpsters, garbage bins and food lockers – $17,483
• Fencing and buffers – $18,650

Read our full press release.

When prairie dogs are poisoned with Rozol—an extremely dangerous pesticide—it’s not just the prairie dogs that perish. So do countless other species that rely on prairie dogs for food and shelter.

Black-footed ferrets rely on large prairie dog colonies for food and shelter.

Black-footed ferrets can only survive where there are enough prairie dogs for them to feast on. Burrowing owls use prairie dogs holes to escape from hungry predators. Badgers, golden eagles, swift foxes and dozens of other species benefit from having healthy prairie dog colonies around.

That’s why Rozol is so pernicious. The dust is left behind in prairie dog burrows where it can kill any number of species. But it doesn’t stop there. Rozol is toxic enough to kill any subsequent animal that feeds on the poisoned carcass as long as it persists in the environment.

Fortunately, thanks to the ongoing efforts of Defenders’ legal team, imperiled prairie species in six states will be safer this fall.

Last summer, the DC Circuit court sided with Defenders and put a temporary ban on the use of Rozol in four states. In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to revisit the impacts of Rozol on threatened and endangered species across 10 states.

As a result of that agreement, EPA announced new conservation measures last week that will limit the use of Rozol in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming. These measures include:

• Prohibiting the use of Rozol in black-footed ferret reintroduction areas
• Prohibiting the use of Rozol in southwestern New Mexico to protect jaguars, Mexican gray wolves, and other species
• Shortening the Rozol application season where prairie dog range overlaps with grizzly bears and Preble’s meadow jumping mouse
• Amending Rozol label to require enhanced searches to remove poisoned prairie dogs before other animals feed on them

Defenders is still concerned that some of these measures don’t go far enough. So far, EPA has posted the new measures on their Bulletins Live! website, but there’s no guarantee that pesticide users will actually implement them. Further, EPA is likely to allow Rozol to be used again in areas not covered by the new conservation measures. Even if Rozol were banned completely, there are still other dangerous poisons on the market that can be substituted, some of which have dire impacts for non-target species.

But overall, the changes made by EPA are a step in the right direction. Meanwhile, Defenders will continue working to get rid of other pesticides that are harmful to imperiled wildlife.

Wyoming targets 98 wolves—At a meeting in Jackson this week, Wyoming Game and Fish officials said they expect about 100 wolves will be killed next year under proposed hunting regulations in the state (read full story in Jackson Hole News & Guide). Game and Fish has recommended a quota of 52 wolves in the trophy game management area where licensed hunting will be allowed from October through December. The state estimates that another 46 wolves are likely to be killed via targeted removal, poaching and vehicle collisions.

Defenders has continued to raise serious concerns about Wyoming’s overall management plan which will allow wolves outside the trophy game area to be killed at any time by any means. While the hunting quota would be lower in Wyoming than in either Montana or Idaho, the state also has far fewer wolves (at the end of 2011, Wyoming had at least 328 wolves compared to 653 in Montana and 746 in Idaho). Further, unrestricted killing will be allowed in parts of southwest Wyoming that are vital corridors for wolves to disperse to Colorado and Utah.

Public comments on Wyoming’s proposed hunting regulations will be accepted through April 23 and at the next Wyoming Game and Fish Commission meeting April 25-26 in Casper. Click here to download the comment form.

Surprise! Wolves are good for the ecosystem – Scientific experts continue to find stronger evidence for the vital role that wolves play in maintaining a healthy environment. A new study for Oregon State University researchers found that the loss of predators, especially wolves, has created a cascade of negative environmental consequences. By removing predators from the ecosystem, game populations (elk, deer and moose) have exploded to historic levels. Having all those extra mouths to feed has destroyed native plant communities in sensitive areas and prevented younger trees from taking root. Fewer trees mean less biodiversity and can also lead to deforestation and less carbon sequestration.

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

The American Society of Mammalogists has also raised concerns about the negative impacts of removing predators from the landscape. The scientific organization sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in late March, criticizing Wildlife Services continued use of aggressive lethal control. Between 2000 and 2010, Wildlife Services killed more than 2 million mammals, including 916,000 coyotes, 321,000 beavers, and 126,000 raccoons. Notably, the agency also killed thousands of predators, including 3,000 wolves, 4,000 cougars and 4,500 bears. The widespread killing of native species has dramatically altered the health of our environment and reduced biodiversity in many places. Read more in the Billings Gazette.

The Society also shares Defenders’ concern that the federal Wildlife Services agency is increasingly expanding into helping manage state hunting programs by killing predators in attempts to artificially inflate popular hunted species like elk.

Wolves and the River of No Return – Don’t miss the premiere of “River of No Return” on PBS next week. Wolf biologist-turned-filmmaker Isaac Babcock and his wife spent a year exploring the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho, and now they’re sharing their dramatic wildlife encounters and stunning scenery with the rest of us. You can read about one of Babcock’s first wolf encounters in this story from the Idaho Statesman, and check out a preview of the PBS special below.

Watch River of No Return – Preview on PBS. See more from Nature.

Tune in Wednesday, April 18 for the national premiere on PBS.

Wolf hunt ends in most of Idaho – Idaho’s wolf hunting and trapping season ended Saturday, March 31 across most of the state. Since the season began seven months ago, 372 wolves were legally killed—about half of the total number of estimated wolves tallied at the end of 2011. As Defenders wolf expert Suzanne Stone told Northwest Public Radio, that’s a lot of wolves, especially for the first year of state wolf management after federal protections were stripped for the species in May. Also, in some wolf hunting districts hunting will be allowed right through denning season to June 30, when wolf packs and pups are easily found and exceptionally vulnerable.

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The state wildlife commission has already ratcheted up their wolf control efforts for next year by approving higher bag limits and extending the season in several parts of the state. The state appears to be trying to drive the population down to a minimum number—an approach that resembles aggressive predator control more than it does responsible wildlife management. Idaho doesn’t treat black bears and cougars that way, even though those species are far more abundant, also prey on elk, and can have similar impacts on livestock.

It’s time for Idaho to start managing wolves like they do other valuable wildlife rather than pursuing the same strategies that nearly wiped wolves out 80 years ago and led to their listing.

Nonlethal tools are taking off in Oregon, allowing wolves and livestock to coexist. Defenders help pay for fladry at this eastern Oregon ranch.

Oregon invests in coexistence – While Idaho continues to dismantle wolf recovery efforts, Oregon is moving forward with a program that will help reduce conflict and benefit wolves over the long run. Oregon Department of Agriculture distributed nearly $83,000 this week to counties in eastern Oregon through the state’s newly minted wolf coexistence and livestock compensation program. Defenders helped the state create the program, which was adopted unanimously in legislation last summer. The best part is that $65,000 (almost 80 percent!) is earmarked for purchasing nonlethal deterrents like fladry, electric fencing and other scare devices. This bodes well for a future in which people and livestock can coexist in Oregon. Defenders has helped pioneer these methods in Oregon by working directly with ranchers who are living with wolves nearby, providing funding for range riders, purchasing miles of turbofladry, hosting training workshops for biologists, and more.  We are expanding our work in Washington and California to ensure that wolves have the best possible support across the West and deeply appreciate the continued support of our members who make our work possible.

OR7 back in Cali – The draw of the Golden State was simply too irresistible for OR-7, the lone male wolf that has been dividing his time between California and Oregon since the end of last year. According to California Department of Fish & Game, OR-7’s tracking collar was picked up on the southern side of the state line on March 31. He had left the state in early March, spending most of the month in southwest and south-central Oregon, but now he’s back in northern California. Keep tabs on his latest moves here. See full story in today’s Sacramento Bee.