Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies Representative 

Last weekend, Defenders helped cosponsor the 28th Annual Edmonds Community College PowWow, and I was fortunate to be able to attend. This year, the international tribal gathering honored the “Teachings of the Wolves,” which have renewed importance both for Native American communities and those of us working to restore a gray wolf population to the Pacific Northwest.

Children at the Quileute school especially enjoyed meeting the ambassador wolf (©Joe Whittle)

Defenders recognizes the deep historic cultural ties that many tribal communities have with wolves. Wolves have been demonized by politicians as being uncontrollable threats to livestock over the years and many ranchers have remained resistant to implementing readily available nonlethal tools that can dramatically reduce or prevent livestock losses. Some politicians have used these conflicts as platforms for promoting anti-wolf campaigns in the Pacific Northwest region. Thus, the recent PowWow was a welcome break from the heated rhetoric attacking wolves and provided a rare chance to learn from tribal leaders who have strong cultural ties to wolves.

We have met several times with leaders of the Quileute Tribe, whose reservation is located on the Olympic Peninsula, a key future recovery area for wolves. Just a few years ago, we helped organize a Mission:Wolf ambassador wolf program for the Quileute school and village dance center. Almost all tribal members participated in the event, from the elders to young children, and celebrated by presenting their sacred wolf dance.

When we heard about the Edmonds PowWow event honoring wolves, it was obviously essential to have the Quileute there to share their stories, dance and drumming. The organizers of this event agreed, and our support enabled the Quileute representatives to attend the event.

Participants at the PowWow were especially honored that tribal elder Roger Jackson was able to attend the event and even danced their sacred wolf dance. He told stories about the Quileute wolf society and the ceremonies that have been handed down from generation to generation. PowWow participants from several tribes danced while drummers performed a traditional song – listen here:

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.

Tribal member Marco Black (©Suzanne Stone/Defenders)

Tribal member Marco “Jacob” Black, who was the inspiration for the Jacob Black character in the popular Twilight series, spoke about the tribe’s respect for wolves and told their origin story in which the orca transforms into the wolf on land. He spoke of the importance of honoring the elders and encouraged all the young people to speak in the manner of their grandmothers and grandfathers – with respect. Like wolves, their voices are the voices of their ancestors.

As wolves struggle to disperse and return once more to key parts of their historic range in the west, there is an urgent need for a strong community of support and understanding for this much maligned and often persecuted species. Many Tribal members relate to the plight of the wolf in very personal ways. They want to honor their cultural heritage by sharing their spiritual deep respect for wolves and other native wildlife. As in the teachings of native leaders, their wisdom in regard to our natural world is needed now more than ever.

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
- Chief Seattle, Duwamish (1780-1866)

Two great friends of wolves: Quileute tribal elder Roger Jackson and Defenders’ Representative Suzanne Asha Stone

©Eyeliam/Flickr

Anderson Shepard, Conservation Planning Associate

Instead of wilderness and wildlife, could visitors to Glacier National Park soon be passing fields of wine grapes as they drive up to the gate? Not long ago, I helped author a study that suggests that by 2050, this could very well be the case. In the paper, titled “Climate Change, Wine, and Conservation” and published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), we looked at how rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns are affecting the delicate balance of temperature and moisture – the primary elements for growing high-quality wine grapes.

This map shows how the change in wine-producing country will overlap with wolf habitat. ©Anderson Shepard

Using climate models and an analysis of the current distribution, temperature and moisture requirements of high-quality wine grape varieties, we project that climate change will shrink the area suitable for wine production in some of the most famous wine-producing regions in the world, while opening up wine production in some unusual places. Alarmingly, we found that climate change could soon drive a massive expansion of agriculture into some of the most intact wildlife habitat in the U.S., impacting dozens of species.

Although I performed this research before coming to Defenders, its message is still wildlife-focused. Agriculture can be a huge driver of habitat loss and degradation, and Defenders has spent an enormous amount of time and energy advocating for policies and actions that would promote habitat conservation and coexistence between farmers, ranchers and wildlife, putting solutions in place to protect animals like bears and wolves. Climate change threatens to take this issue to a whole new level. Not only will it change the biophysical landscape and cause shifts in the existing natural assemblages of plants and animals, but, as this paper shows, it is expected to open a great deal of new land to agriculture, causing more natural areas to be developed and more wildlife habitat to be broken into pieces.

Canada lynx, ©Ken Curtis

The Northern Rockies is a region where we focus much of our work at Defenders. The region is flush with extensive tracts of wildlands, and it is the last remaining area in the Lower 48 that hosts a complete set of large carnivores – one of the few places you can find animals like bears, wolves, lynx and bobcats all together. Our study found that between 2000 and 2050, the land in the Northern Rockies suitable for viticulture (growing grapes for wine) will increase by more than 58 million acres. The next 50 years will likely be a trying period for species such as the Canada lynx, gray wolf and grizzly bear – these species are likely to see vineyards popping up all over their range over the next few decades. Wolves attempting to roam across long-established territory will find acres of it replaced with land that is useless to them. Bears, often captured or killed when caught taking advantage of orchards or other fruit crops, will be sorely tempted to wander into new vineyards looking for a meal, only to put themselves in danger. Combine that with the region’s continuing surge in development, and we see impacts on a scale that could dramatically alter these species’ ability to thrive in the region.

Grizzly bear, ©Michael S. Quinton, National Geographic stock

We could see these impacts on an even broader scale if the shift in lands suitable for vineyards also holds true for other agricultural crops. This could put even more species in danger, caught between a changing climate and the ever- expanding human footprint on the land. For the conservation community, the key is to spot these issues early on and help the relevant industries to plan carefully so that we can minimize the damage to wildlife. In fact, this is already happening in some regions where wine growers are working closely with conservationists to confront the environmental, cultural and economic challenges posed by a changing climate. It is up to individuals and organizations like us to ensure a future for wildlife despite the challenges of a changing climate.

You can read more on this study in The New York Times, CBS News and The Guardian.
You can also read the full report at PNAS.

Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies Representative

OR-14, a wolf from the Umatilla River pack. (c) ODFW

In 1999, a female wolf from Idaho crossed over into central Oregon before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracked her down, darted her, caged her and then returned her to Idaho. She was the first known wolf to return to Oregon since the mid-1930s, when the species was officially eradicated. Her journey set efforts into motion that led to the creation of the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. Other legislation, knee-jerk county decrees and countless news stories followed, all speculating on what impact wolves might have as they returned to their historic homeland.

I served on the original team that helped draft the earliest versions of what eventually became the state’s wolf plan. That’s where I met Carl Scheeler, wildlife biologist for the Umatilla tribe in northeast Oregon, who would continue to help the state craft conservation strategies that were adopted in 2005. Carl is a great biologist and also good with people. His sometimes irreverent humor was always well timed to lift discussions that had become muddied or polarized. He seemed to know that, no matter what, things were going to work out. His optimism helped many of us endure the endless (and often thankless) work of forging a plan that would secure the restoration of wolves while meeting the needs of diverse residents.

Carl always looked forward to the day that wolves would be documented on the Umatilla reservation, and would call from time to time with reports of tracks, sightings and other hopeful signs. It wasn’t until last year, however, that his hopes were finally fulfilled. Carl’s department assisted the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) in efforts to confirm the first wolf den site near the reservation. ODFW wolf biologists documented four pups last summer, and Defenders helped the tribe purchase several infrared, motion-detection wildlife cameras to continue monitoring the pack. In the fall, tribal biologists used the cameras we provided to document the alpha male of the pack. Then, just a few weeks ago, they captured this footage of the pack. We don’t know what startles the young wolf during the video, but notice how he submissively wraps his tail under his hindlegs. That’s normally the response of a lower-ranking wolf or pup when frightened.

Last week, Carl and I met with local ranchers and tribal and state wildlife managers to discuss nonlethal strategies for reducing conflicts between livestock and wolves on the reservation. We talked about the use of carcass disposal, increased human presence, fladry and other deterrents to reduce wolf and livestock losses. After the meeting, we followed up on a tip from a wildlife manager of another possible pack near tribal lands. It’s a beautiful national forest area that looks like the expansive valleys and rolling mountains in Yellowstone. There were loads of elk and plenty of deer sign in the large, open meadows and gorgeous red-barked Ponderosa pines towering above us as we drove through the rolling hills. After driving over washboard-pitted dirt roads with a blizzard bearing down on us, we found the spot where the tracks were reported. Tracking conditions were pretty good in the thin blanket of snow that covered most of the ground. Eager to confirm a new pack, we examined the tracks and quickly determined they were canine, but not wolf. Wolves have huge feet and leave a track that typically measures about five inches in length and three to four inches in width. That’s about the size of my hand, which is useful when I don’t have a ruler handy. Unfortunately, these were dog tracks – a big dog to be certain, but not his wild ancestor.

I always welcome the chance to return to the Umatilla country, and it’s even more powerful now with wolves back on the reservation. As one tribal leader assured me, “Wolves are welcome here and we hope to never lose them again.” Defenders will be part of that effort to ensure that wolves have a secure future on their historic homeland that they once again share with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla.

Mike Leahy, Rocky Mountain Program Director

Navigating the turbulent waters between federal management of imperiled species and state management of most other wildlife can be as dangerous for wildlife as the mythological straits between Scylla and Charybdis. On one side is the slippery rock of the federal government, too often providing scant refuge for any endangered or imperiled species deemed controversial, like listed predators or wild bison. On the other side is the whirlpool of anti-environmental state politics, ready to shred the lifeboat of any animals that are not particularly popular in a given state.

The Montana state capitol building

Wolves have been cast off by the federal government with practically no protections and are now starting to circle downward in the state whirlpool. Genetically pure bison live mostly on the rock of federal land, but every time an effort is made to try to establish thems as wildlife outside of Yellowstone National Park, state courts and legislatures try to beat them back. Grizzlies are about to enter the narrow straits between federal and state management through proposals to lift federal protections, and already they face turbulence from those who would greet them with a lethal response.

Defenders’ Rockies and Plains staff and volunteers have been strategically weighing in with state legislatures and committees where we can be most effective. Our Montana staff have taken turns traveling to Helena, where the state legislature – once an exemplar for conservation – has devolved into a four-month biennial frenzy of anti-wildlife fervor focused mainly on wolves and bison. Wolves have faced bills that would cut their numbers from over 600 to 250, give free wolf licenses to deer and elk hunters, and allow them to be shot on sight on private land. Bison face numerous bills to prevent any wild bison from entering the rest of Montana from the two areas where they are now, including authorizing landowners to shoot them on sight and stopping tribes from restoring bison to their reservations. Grizzlies still have more political clout than their wild compatriots, but even they faced a bill to require lethal control for even the most minor conflicts with people and domestic animals. Counties are also trying to wrest control of all wildlife from the state fish and wildlife agencies, which would be really bad for bears and countless other species.

Defenders’ Montana members have weighed in on many of these bills, and our local staff have testified on many as well. Sometimes it seems like our pro-wildlife pleas fall on deaf ears, but most of the craziest bills are getting beaten back! One bill was even amended – based in part on our input – to direct a couple hundred-thousand dollars to nonlethal tools to prevent predation on livestock.

Defenders certainly isn’t doing this alone. We work closely with other conservation groups as well as with conservation-minded hunting organizations and tribes. While too many hunting organizations have been extremely hostile towards federally protected predators, those that remain true to their conservation roots are among wildlife’s most effective advocates at the state level. Tribes have sovereignty over wildlife and resource issues on their reservations and most state legislatures recognize that their authority does not extend onto wildlife management issues on tribal lands.

We are also active in other states. Past legislative efforts in Oregon to set up solid programs to manage wolves continue to pay dividends. Nonlethal wolf management strategies are firmly established there and have been maintained so far this year with minimal political interference. Unfortunately, the Washington state legislature is increasingly going the way of Wyoming, with lots of venomous anti-wolf bills. The bills seek to undermine the state’s relatively balanced wolf management plan by giving authority to local elected officials over state wildlife biologists and allowing their constituents to override state restrictions and kill wolves perceived to be a threat to livestock on public and private lands.  Fortunately, Defenders has a strong membership presence in Washington state, as do a number of our colleagues, and we have been sending some of our experts to Washington state to help volunteers push back on these bills.

State wildlife management is not federal wildlife management, and once an endangered species loses its federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, in most cases management reverts back to complete state control. States allow hunting and sometimes trapping of game species, and have been particularly harsh in their treatment of predators like wolves and bears. However, if wolves, bison, and bears can make it through the current straits of uncertainty to calmer waters where they are managed more like other wildlife – for the long term, healthy in numbers and distribution, free-roaming – there will be opportunities to secure their populations and continue their recovery. If they don’t make it through these straits, if states never embrace their responsibility to manage former federally protected members of the nation’s wildlife in trust for the public – there is always the possibility the federal government will have to step in again.

Gray wolf in Yellowstone National Park (Credit: Sandy Sisti)

Jamie Rappaport Clark, President and CEO

I am an incredibly lucky biologist.  Every year I am privileged to join dozens of Defenders of Wildlife friends and their families in Yellowstone National Park. Our mission: to watch wolves! My husband Jim, my son Carson and I look forward to this trip every year as we monitor wolf recovery and see firsthand the amazing rebound of a species on the brink of extinction in the lower 48.

One of the highlights of the trip is to get some time with some of the wolf biologists that are on the ground studying wolves all year long. Doug Smith, Dan Stahler, Erin Albers, and others do a fantastic job tracking about a dozen packs throughout the park.  The research they have been doing for the past 17 years has been invaluable to wolf conservation and behavior studies worldwide.

That’s why it is so disturbing to see some of these very same wolves gunned down during the current hunting season. Unfortunately, wolves don’t understand borders and many of the park wolves are used to seeing people.  They don’t know that it’s another world outside of the park boundaries, or that people could mean danger outside the park.  Already, ten Yellowstone wolves have been killed; seven of them with radio research collars, possibly putting decades of wolf research in jeopardy.

We learn so much from Yellowstone research that helps us better understand and manage wolves, not only in Yellowstone but throughout the Northern Rockies and everywhere wolves now find a home. One of the most important research efforts is on predator-prey relationships.  We now better understand what types of species wolves prey on, how much they eat, how they work as a pack and what animals rely on the remains of those kills for their own survival. The research also shows us how other animals behave in the presence of wolves.  Further research indicates that wolves impact numerous species, a term some biologists refer to as “trophic cascades.” One theory is that wolves may influence elk behavior and cause them to spend less time browsing the valley and streams of Yellowstone. This has allowed willows and other trees and brush to flourish, providing richer habitat for beaver, fish, birds and amphibians. We might never have known all of the impressive and important roles that wolves play if we had not had data from the years of extensive research on Yellowstone wolves.

A collared gray wolf in Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of William C. Campbell/U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Other research provides data on disease, genetics, breeding, kill rates, pup survival and mortality. Yellowstone is considered by scientists world-wide to be the premier landscape for wolf research because of how visible the wolves are in Yellowstone’s northern range.  In addition to the tragedy of these iconic wolves being killed, we are losing a plethora of research with the loss of each collared Yellowstone wolf.

Yellowstone wolves are valuable for the data they generate that help us understand more about wolves and the important role they play in the ecosystem.  But they are also important to people.  During the first years of wolf reintroduction, biologists had no idea that the newly-released wolves in the northern range of Yellowstone would be so visible to researchers and to the many visitors who visit the park every year.  Tens of thousands of people are lucky enough to come to Yellowstone every year to watch the wolves that make this great park their home.  I know many photographers and filmmakers that have made their living following the wolf packs and capturing their personalities and behaviors; tour guides also benefit from the desire of tourists to see wolves. And all of these people spend money in the park and in the local communities — on the order of $35 million annually, and leveraging a total economic impact of about $70 million per year.

Photo by Michael Quinton/National Geograhic Stock.

The killing of these Yellowstone wolves certainly brings the management policies of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana into clear focus. The loss of these wolves — the most protected in the region, until they set foot outside Yellowstone National Park — provides a window into what is happening to wolves throughout the Northern Rockies, where wolves have few and in some cases no protections.  Already, 257 wolves have been killed so far this hunting season, and more than 800 have died since Congress removed federal protections for wolves in the core of the Rockies.  It’s hard to believe that this is an animal that only last year was protected as an endangered species.

The states of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming need to step up and work with the park officials to reduce these serious impacts on wolf research efforts. America has a lot invested in this research and in these wolves. We should be proud that we are leaders in wolf conservation research and take steps now to avoid the losses that occurred this year. We cannot let one of the most spectacular conservation accomplishments of the last century be undermined by wrong-headed management practices.  It’s time we all take a stand and let the states surrounding Yellowstone know that their actions are unacceptable, and we need to work together to ensure a brighter future not only for the wolves in Yellowstone but for those throughout the region.

 This post was written by Patrick Graham, a member of the Wood River Wolf Project field crew 

Last month, the Wood River Wolf Project concluded its fifth and arguably most successful season — but it was a roller coaster from the very beginning.

Boise the lost wolf pup

As folks started to pour into the Wood River Valley seeking recreation, a couple of campers nearly drove over a wolf pup! They thought it would be a good idea to capture him and turn him over to the Sheriff, who then brought the pup down to the Sun Valley Animal Center. Field assistant Kyle Coshow happened to be working at the Center when the wolf arrived and knew we had to try to help. This kicked off a furious effort to locate the rendezvous site of the pup’s pack in order to return him to the wild with his family. Sadly, we were unable to locate his pack, so the pup was sent to Busch Gardens in Virginia to be raised with other pups his age.

Luckily, we didn’t have much time to mope around before things got really busy. At the end of June, our project team held a three-day training session and officially kicked off the grazing season when five different bands of sheep trailed onto the Sawtooth National Forest. Then we installed 15 motion-activated cameras along major grazing routes with suspected wolf activity and got pictures almost right away.

We captured our first photo of a wolf on June 24 near Lake Creek, which alerted us to the presence of wolves in the area. Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication, we weren’t able to stop these wolves from killing four sheep over a busy Fourth of July holiday. Our field crew responded right away, however, by establishing a human presence near the sheep band while they were in the general vicinity of the kill site. We spent three full weeks on night watch and were able to deter any further conflicts. Throughout this 21-day stretch, we pulled six more photos of wolves from different cameras around the area, and every one of our field assistants got to hear wolves while they were out!

Soon thereafter, the Ketchum Ranger District office received a report from a hiker who saw five wolf pups along a road near Sun Valley. We followed up on this report by placing a camera at a stream crossing where wolves would be likely to stop and take a drink. Not too long after this camera was up, we got two great photos of wolves, one black and one gray.

At that point, our crew hiked up a trail with veteran wolf trapper and project adviser Carter Niemeyer to see if we could find any evidence that wolves were still present. Sure enough, not more than half a mile into our hike we discovered a fresh elk carcass. Then, while we were investigating the kill, we heard howls off in the distance. We immediately pursued the noise of the wolves, had Carter give his best howl, and the whole pack responded! We had discovered the Pioneer Pack.

Gray and black pups of the Pioneer Pack

The Pioneer Pack would prove to occupy most of our energy for the rest of the season, since two sheep bands were using the same area. We accumulated nearly 400 photos from 10 different cameras over a four-week period and determined that six wolves were in this pack — two adults and four pups. The sheep that were grazing on this allotment were scheduled to travel directly through the wolves’ rendezvous site, giving us the perfect opportunity to prove how effective nonlethal deterrents really are. One of our crew members was with the sheep every single night for 24 days total. We hiked hundreds of miles, climbed thousands of vertical feet, and used every deterrent in the book, including a propane cannon provided to us by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. We endured rain, wind and show during our time out in the mountains, and heard wolves nearly every night. But at the end of the long month of October, no sheep were killed while in the Corral Creek Drainage, and only four sheep were taken during the previous four-week period.

Considering more than 27,000 sheep moved through the project area during the summer, I’d consider the season an incredible success. Our feet became sore, and our legs became strong. We saw a lot of progress both on the part of the field crew and the ranching community, and look forward to exploring the future of predator deterrents and livestock management. See you all in the spring!