Wyoming's Wolves Targeted
WYOMING’S WOLVES We urge everyone who wishes to have wolves living free in northwestern Wyoming to tell the USFWS and the State of Wyoming to not delist the wolves until a sound and biologically responsible state management plan is in place.
WYOMING’S WOLF POPULATION Breeding
Pairs* Packs Wolves GYE = 22,000,000 acres = 1 Pk/611,111 acres or 1 Wolf/70,740
acres * Breeding pairs are defined as an adult male and female gray wolf raising at least two pups of the year until December 31. Wolves are not overrunning the GYE. There are nearly twice as many grizzly bears as there are wolves, well over 200 times as many elk, 90 times as many deer, 15 times as many moose, 14 times as many bison, and more than 230 times as many people.
NORTHWESTERN WYOMING’S ELK HERDS (Elk
facts for 2005 and within 8 HUs with wolves) A WGF study released in March of 2007 sets out to prove the conclusion that wolves are causing significant declines in at least 4 of 8 herd HUs in Northwestern Wyoming. This study compares only two parameters — the ratio of calves to cows after the hunting season (winter counts) and the presence or absence of wolves. Most wildlife managers agree that the average post-hunt ratio should be about 25 calves for every 100 cows in order to sustain a hunting season. The average 2005 calf:cow ratio for the 8 wolf-occupied HUs is 25:100. In general and over the past two-plus decades, the trend has been going down in 6 of the 8 HUs, including the years before wolves were returned to the system. In four of the 6 HUs showing a decline, an acceleration in the rate of decrease appears to coincide with the arrival of wolves. Unfortunately, the study does not analyze the impacts on elk reproduction (including pregnancy rates, birth rates, and calf birth weights) that might be attributed to changes in habitat quality as a consequence of the ongoing drought. Nor does the study factor in the impacts other predators (including grizzly bears, black bears, and cougars) might be having on the elk. Nor were the impacts of yearly hunting of cows and calves analyzed. From a statistical standpoint, yearly calf:cow ratios could just as easily been compared changes in the region’s human population, the price of gasoline or the age of the study’s author. The point is, the analysis utilized in the WGF study may point out correlations but in no way does it identify causes. This study states that 6 of 8 wolf-occupied HUs as well as 5 of 13 (38%) wolf-free HUs analyzed exhibited significant declines in the calf:cow ratios between 1980-2005. That 38% of the HUs without wolves have experienced declines strongly suggests that factors other than wolves are at play in the fluctuating elk numbers. And it downplays the fact that the HUs remain at or above herd objectives Unfortunately, wildlife management driven by the goal of maintaining a stable population in order to provide a predictable number of targets for hunters goes directly against the normal, cyclic patterns of big game populations. Managing for population stability in any big game species, let alone elk, is akin to forcing a square peg into a round hole — year after year and at any cost. Clearly the main dietary component of Wyoming’s wolves is elk. However, to blame even the questionable reductions in some elk population parameters solely on wolves represents nothing more than a centuries-old anti-wolf prejudice — not sound, peer-reviewed science. The report is not worth the killing of a single Wyoming wolf.
WYOMING’S AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY The 2006 Wyoming Department of Agriculture report (covering 2005) estimates that 313,000 cattle inhabited the 7 counties either reporting wolf depredations or known to have resident wolves. With 69 cattle killed by wolves (confirmed or probable), that represents 0.02% of the cattle in the area. For sheep, the 2006 state report estimates that approximately 55,900 breeding sheep and lambs inhabited the 7 counties. With 60 confirmed and probable sheep and lambs killed by wolves, that represents 0.11% of all available sheep. In 2005,
in the 7 counties with wolves or reporting livestock killed by wolves,
there were: Differing with the numbers reported in the Wyoming Game and Fish report cited above, the Wyoming 2006 Agricultural Statistics report offers a nice, round 1,000 sheep and lambs killed by wolves in Wyoming in 2005. Even with this unverified, suspiciously inflated number, wolf losses would account for only 4.2% of losses attributed to all predators and only 2% of all losses including everything from lambing complications (13.9%), weather (17.8%), disease (8.2%), old age (2.9%), coyotes (30.6%), and dogs (0.6%). Even IF the reported wolf depredation numbers are underestimated, to imply that this level of loss threatens the state’s agriculture industry is an exaggeration of monumental proportions. Clearly, any loss of livestock represents a financial loss for ranchers. Wyoming’s wolf management plan should include ways to fully compensate livestock producers for losses due to wolf predation, and ways to quickly deal with problem wolves.
WYOMING’S WOLF MANAGEMENT PLAN RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS Not only would this corridor benefit immediate movements to the south, but it could eventually act as a movement corridor and aid in the long-term genetic mixing of what could otherwise be isolated populations. Recently, the USFWS modified its position and proposed a small Trophy Game Area encompassing only the northern two-thirds of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Every wolf outside that boundary would be classified as a predator and would be managed by the Wyoming Department of Agriculture that allows predators to be killed by anyone at any time by any means. However, Wyoming continues to insist on an even smaller Trophy Game area. The USFWS has said that it will continue toward delisting all wolves outside the proposed Trophy Game boundaries (and turn their fortunes over to Wyoming) while negotiating with the state on the final boundaries for the Trophy Game area. Even within the Trophy Game area, recently passed Wyoming legislation mandates “aggressive” management of Trophy Game wolves that we interpret to mean killing wolves right down to the minimum 8 packs or breeding pairs. This aggressive management is clearly aimed at keeping wolf numbers near the minimum recovery threshold — a strategy vigorously opposed by the Conservation Alliance. We must remember that the threshold for recovery is also the brink of being endangered and to manage for minimum numbers puts Wyoming’s wolves back on that narrow line between recovered and endangered. In a recent turn of events, the USFWS announced that it will modify the 10(j) rule within the Endangered Species Act so as to allow Wyoming to begin killing wolves even before being delisted. The only threshold Wyoming has to cross before beginning their slaughter campaign is to prove that wolves are harming big game herds. Coincidentally, the WGF just released a report on the condition of 8 elk Herd Units in wolf country. The report states that it is apparent wolves are causing significant declines in four HUs (See: NORTHWESTERN WYOMING’S ELK HERDS, this report.)
LOCAL ECONOMIES
PUBLIC OPINION A 1987 National Park Service summary reported 67% countrywide support for reintroduction (23% opposed) and 64% of Wyoming residents approving (25% opposed). The most recent poll we are aware of was conducted by the WGF in 2003. It reported that 50% of respondents strongly or moderately believe wolves are a benefit to the state (36% disagree). Fifty-two percent of the residents of counties not affected by wolves believe wolves are a benefit while only 40% of residents in counties affected by wolves view them as a benefit to the state. The 2003 WGF survey reported that in 2001 an estimated 2,048 elk, 523 mule deer, 44 bison, 44 moose, and 44 antelope were killed by wolves in Wyoming’s portion of the GYE. A majority of state residents polled,54%, agreed that this level of wolf predation was acceptable (33% disagreed). In most of the questions asked in the WY G&F poll, there was less support for wolves in the counties within wolf range than statewide. Clearly the presence of wolves in Wyoming remains a controversial and divisive issue, but support for wolves still outweighs disapproval in most cases. Northwestern Wyoming is primarily public land and thus management decisions must take into consideration national values as well as local and state interests.
FISCAL COSTS FOR LONG-TERM WOLF MANAGEMENT The total USFWS funding for the three-state Northern Rockies wolf recovery program for FY 2006 (Oct. 1, 2005 through Sept. 30, 2006) was about $2,223,000. A total of $255,000 was spent on managing Wyoming’s wolves. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks received $323,000 directly from USFWS for wolf management and another $318,000 appropriated by Congress. Idaho received more than $1 million in Congressional funds earmarked for wolf management. Wildlife Services FY 2006 budget for wolf depredations management in the three-state region was $668,000: $363,000 was spent in Idaho, $152,000 in Montana, and $153,000 in Wyoming. Defenders of Wildlife, a national nonprofit wildlife conservation organization, provided a compensation program for livestock killed by wolves and has had total expenditures of about $700,000 from 1987 to 2006. During the past five years, Defenders of Wildlife paid an average of more than $84,000 per year in compensation to livestock producers in the three-state, Greater Yellowstone Region. For WGF to assume the long-term management of wolves in Wyoming, adequate funding will be needed to provide personnel trained in identifying wolf/livestock depredations as well as wildlife professionals trained to investigate wolf impacts on a variety of wildlife species. In addition, funds will be required to compensate livestock owners who experience wolf depredations. Wolves are an economic asset to Wyoming, the region and the nation. However, they do bring with them a management obligation that cannot be ignored. For unknown reasons, Wyoming is the only state in the region that has not gotten Congressional funds earmarked for wolf management. State leaders should begin immediately to work with their Congressional delegation to acquire such funds. In addition, funding for wolf management in Wyoming should also come from the State’s General Fund because “wolf watchers” pay a variety of state and local taxes on their expenditures in Wyoming, a significant portion of which go to the General Fund. In addition, those revenues plus those spent by federal agencies to manage wolves in Wyoming are “rolled over” in the state, generating another layer of local and state sales tax revenue. All funding earmarked for wolf management, regardless of its source must be administered by the WGF as ADDITIONS to their traditional fiscal year budgets.
RECOMMENDATIONS: 1) The USFWS must reject Wyoming’s current wolf management plan. 2) In order to prevent Wyoming’s wolves from being relisted under the Endangered Species Act, they should be managed as are other big game species — at habitat carrying capacity levels, not at or near the minimum levels required by the USFWS. 3) The Trophy Game area must include all of the state of Wyoming. 4) All wolves should be given compete protection from indiscriminant killing. 5) Wolves determined to be depredating on private livestock anywhere within the state should be removed either by the property owner or by wildlife professionals. 6) Wolves within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem should be given complete protection except to protect private property and where proven necessary to meet reasonable wildlife management objectives. 7) Wolves living beyond the GYE should have various levels of protection, determined by private property protection needs and wildlife management objectives. 8) Through ongoing public education programs, Wyoming’s citizens must come to understand and accept that accommodating a thriving wolf population in Northwestern Wyoming has both economic and environmental benefits. 9) WGF must receive state general funds earmarked specifically to support long-term wolf management programs. 10) Wyoming officials should immediately elicit support from the Congressional Delegation to acquire Congressional funding for long-term management of Wyoming’s wolves.
Public comments regarding the delisting proposal can be submitted to: WesternGrayWolf@fws.gov (put “RIN #1018-AU53” in the subject line) or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Western Gray Wolf Recovery Coordinator, 585 Shepard Way, Helena, MT 59601 by the May 9, 2007, comment deadline. You can copy your comments to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal by emailing governor@state.wy.us.
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