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Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com

CA: Visiting expert calls wolves a ‘limited threat’

By John Bowman
Siskiyou Daily News

Yreka, Calif. — Wolf expert Carter Niemeyer told an audience of about 150 gathered on Thursday night in Yreka that there is “a lot of exaggeration” and sensationalism about wolves in the American west but most of it does not match his 25 years of experience with the animals.

Niemeyer, who has worked as a wolf trapper, wolf predation specialist and wolf recovery specialist for state and federal agencies in Montana and Idaho, was asked by Siskiyou County Agricultural Commissioner Patrick Griffin to come to Siskiyou County to help inform the public about wolves and address some of their fears and concerns.

Some in the audience did not agree with Niemeyer’s opinion that wild wolves present a limited threat to livestock and humans in most cases.
“I’m not a wolf lover. I’m not a wolf hater,” he told the audience, adding that some people might say he is pro-wolf.

“I’m pro-truth,” Niemeyer said. “When you are a government trapper it’s like being a cop. You just gotta go out and you gotta look at the evidence,” he said of his approach to investigating predation attacks on animals.

According to Niemeyer, only about five percent of livestock deaths are the result of predators, and the two main predators in the U.S. are coyotes and domestic dogs. He did point out that wolves hate dogs, and in an encounter between the two, “there isn’t any domestic dog breed that’s going to win against a wolf.”

He also described several methods being employed to keep wolves away from vulnerable livestock and domestic animals, including hanging red flagging or fladry ribbon from fence wire.

“They will not cross that stuff,” Niemeyer said.

Regarding the risk of wolf attacks on humans, Niemeyer said that in 25 years, he has never carried a gun in the field and he has never had a close call with a wolf, in spite of the fact that he has walked up on packs many times and even crawled into their dens to count pups.

He did say that wolves are smart and resilient, and that their populations can be difficult to control in some cases.

At one point, several audience members took issue with Niemeyers characterization of public opinion regarding wolves in Montana.

“You can sit here and tell me I’m a liar, but I’m telling you everything I’m telling you here tonight is the truth from my heart to the best of my knowledge,” Niemeyer responded, adding that he knows a lot of people in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming who like wolves.

District 4 Supervisor Grace Bennett asked Niemeyer about the impacts of wolves becoming established in a region like Siskiyou County where, she said, deer populations are low and elk herds are struggling to get established.

Niemeyer responded that wolves are not likely to establish a population in areas where food is scarce but did acknowledge that the landscape in Siskiyou County is similar to much of Idaho and Montana and it would be difficult to keep wolves out.

He said that though wolf predation will sometimes result in a dramatic decrease in a specific herd of elk, other herds in adjacent areas can increase at the same time.

One audience member asked what positives he could listed for the presence of wolves.

Niemeyer said there is documentation of detrimental effects of excessive grazing on riparian vegetation by elk in Yellowstone National Park after wolves were removed in the 1930s.

Now that wolves are controlling the elk populations there, Niemeyer said, willows and aspens are recovering and the change has resulted in a rebound of many water foul populations, beavers and other animals that rely on healthy riparian zones.

In the long run, Niemeyer said wolves in the west are a reality and rural residents will just have to find ways to deal with it.

“It’s all about societal tolerance,” he said. “How many wolves are people willing to tolerate in any given area?”

After spending all day Friday touring areas of Siskiyou County, Niemeyer told the Daily News, “It’s beautiful country out there and there are definitely some wolfy areas.”

He said, in his opinion, there is plenty of habitat for wolves in Siskiyou County, but some of it has too much human presence to be ideal.
He added that he expected some hostility from the audience at his presentation and it wasn’t quite as severe as he had anticipated.

“Some people came with their own agenda and some people tended toward making statements instead of asking questions,” he said. “Sometimes they kind try to put words in my mouth but you have got to stand up to that. Really, what you have to do is be a good listener.”

OR7 update

Regarding the chances for wolf OR7 – which traveled into northern California from northeast Oregon – finding a mate, Niemeyer called it a “long, long-shot.”

California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) Senior Policy Advisor Mark Stopher was in the audience Thursday night and he gave the group an update on the movements and activities of OR7.

Stopher said that on Wednesday several CDFG employees were in Modoc County to warn landowners of OR7’s presence in the area when they happened to encounter the wolf in a roadside expanse of sagebrush. Stopher also said the wolf was in the company of three coyotes at the time.

“He’s still in Modoc county – still one wolf – and he’s bigger than the coyotes, I can tell you that,” Stopher said.

Stopher said his agency has investigated several locations where OR7 has revisited or lingered.

“One of those locations in Lassen County turned out to be a bone pile where a rancher had hauled a couple of carcasses. And we assisted the rancher in burying those carcasses and the wolf moved off immediately,” Stopher said.

He said several other locations contained deer carcasses the wolf had been feeding on, but it was impossible to determine whether OR7 had killed the animal or scavenged it.

OR7 was originally part of the Imnaha pack in northeastern Oregon. The founding members of this pack migrated into Oregon from Idaho.

The pack has been documented killing livestock, and two of its members have been killed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). The agency decided to kill two additional wolves from the pack; however, that action has not yet been implemented due to a court-ordered temporary stay.

Niemeyer said that, in his opinion, the Imnaha pack has become far too accustomed to killing livestock and should be removed.

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