LAURA LUNDQUIST, Chronicle Staff Writer
Montana will receive $150,000 in federal money to pay for livestock loss due to wolves and support projects that reduce predator conflict.
On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that Montana would receive $150,000 of the $900,000 worth of grants given to states under the Wolf Livestock Demonstration Project.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service sent me an email a week or two ago saying we’d get $150,000, which is exactly what I put in for,” said George Edwards, Livestock Loss Board executive secretary.
Eight other states, including Wyoming and Idaho, will also receive funding.
The grant requires that livestock producers share half the cost and has two parts.
The larger portion assists livestock producers who want to incorporate proactive, non-lethal methods to avoid wolf predation.
Montana received $100,000 for nonlethal methods, the largest amount of the nine states. Last year, Montana was awarded the same amount, which allowed the livestock loss board to support six projects. But the need is greater than what the board can fund, Edwards said.
Four grants went to livestock-carcass collection and composting projects in the Blackfoot, Paradise, Big Hole and Madison valleys. The other grants helped buy a guard dog for a rancher near Martinsdale and electric fencing for a rancher in Jefferson County.
“The Blackfoot Challenge has been able to reduce predation by more than 95 percent,” Edwards said. “We’ll see how successful the lady is in Jefferson County. Apparently, so far so good because I haven’t received a claim from her.”
Livestock producers have to pay their half of the cost, but Edwards said that payment includes in-kind services.
The other portion of the USFWS grant compensates producers for livestock losses caused by wolves.
Montana received $50,000 for confirmed losses, which will be matched by money from the state general fund.
Last year, the state received $70,000 for losses.
It should be getting cheaper to compensate ranchers because wolf-related losses have decreased since the peak in 2009 when wolves killed 85 cattle and 214 sheep.
So far this year, wolves have killed 28 cattle. Last year, they killed 46 cattle and 24 sheep.
But Edwards pointed out that the price of beef has shot up this year, partly because ranchers nationwide are raising fewer cattle because of drought.
“Due to the higher value of livestock — calves that a year and a half ago were bringing a dollar a pound are now bringing almost $3 a pound – the actual dollars going out is equal,” Edwards said.
Edwards said he wouldn’t have had enough money to compensate ranchers if predation had remained high.
He credits Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester with creating the Wolf Livestock Demonstration Project as part of the Wolf Livestock Loss Mitigation Act, co-sponsored with Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. Edwards testified in support of the bill, which was passed as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009.
The Wolf Livestock Demonstration Project was limited to five years and was funded for only two of them.
“The timing on it has expired, but Sen. Tester was able to get an appropriation to fund it again. Now it’s a year-by-year thing,” Edwards said. “This has been an ongoing thing trying to get funding. We couldn’t do it without his help.”
Tester spokesman Dan Malessa said Tester appreciates that the USFWS has kept the program alive.
“Jon plans to keep working with stakeholders on the ground to ensure the initiative is meeting the needs of Montanans and will continue to secure funding for it through his seat on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee,” Malessa said.