As the gray wolf population rises in the West, “states are trying to walk the line between the ranchers, who view the animals as an economic and physical menace, and environmentalists, who see their reintroduction as a success story,” says a Stateline story reprinted by Route Fifty. The issue is drawn most starkly in Washington State, which allotted $3.3 million and invested thousands of hours of staff time in wolf management.
Says Donny Martorello, wolf policy chief in the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, “It really is about having a large carnivore back on the landscape that has been absent for decades.” A century ago, the gray wolf was nearly extinct in the United States. It is protected as an endangered species in most of the country but in some places — Montana, Idaho, north-central Utah and the eastern third of Oregon and Washington State — wolves no longer have blanket protection.
Cattle and sheep ranchers complain of depredation by wolves and say state compensation programs are too finicky and pay too little for lost livestock. The state also tries to kill problem wolves. Rancher Len McIrvin says cattle don’t calve as often when wolves are around, reducing income. Dave Dashiell sold one-third of his sheep herd after heavy losses to wolves.
Shawn Cantrell, a Northwest regional director of the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife, sympathizes with ranchers for their losses but says wolves are a small factor in overall cattle and sheep losses compared to those from coyotes and other predators, and natural causes.
State Rep. Shelley Short, a member of the wolf advisory group created by the Washington State Legislature, says the group had an “aha moment” at a meeting in May. There was “recognition on the part of ranchers that cows would be lost and an acknowledgement on the part of the preservation community that wolves would probably be lost,” she told Elaine Povich, author of the Stateline story.