Stating the case for wolf recovery
By Paul Boerger
Depending on which side you listen to, wolf recovery in the United States is either a disaster waiting to happen or an environmentalist’s dream.
The Mount Shasta Bioregional Center on Friday evening hosted wolf recovery proponent Nancy Weiss, who spent two hours with the help of a slide show and videos telling the audience that wolf recovery is not only a good idea, but is essential to the certain ecosystems.
Weiss, the western director of species conservation for Defenders of Wildlife, comes to the position with a M.S. in entomology, a law degree and a certification as a holistic behavioral practitioner for canines and other species.
Weiss began the evening by outlining the history of wolves in North America.
She said prior to the European colonization of America, the wolf population was conservatively estimated to be in the 200,000 to 400,000 range, with high estimates running to 1,000,000 animals.
“Bringing with them all of their superstitions and myths about wolves,” Weiss said, “the Europeans slaughtered the wolves until in the 1930s there were virtually no breeding pairs left in the United States.”
It was only in 1973, with the advent of the Environmental Protection Act, that wolves were listed as an endangered species, said Weiss.
Recovery programs all over the United States are underway, and Weiss said scientists say that the Siskiyou-Klamath region is a suitable habitat for a wolf recovery program that could support approximately 440 wolves.
Weiss went to great lengths to set aside many of what she says are myths about wolf behavior.
She said ranchers’ concerns that wolves will depopulate their herds are unfounded.
“According to state and federal agriculture department reports, less than .01 percent of all sheep and cattle deaths are due to wolf attacks,” Weiss said.
Weiss said that the Defenders of Wildlife has set up a fund to reimburse ranchers for animals lost to wolf attacks that pays full market value for a confirmed death and 50 percent of market value for a probable kill.
In addition, Weiss said Defenders is also funding fencing, additional range riders and alarm systems to help ranchers defend their animals in areas where wolves have been restored.
In the area of human attacks, Weiss said that statistically “you have a greater chance of being hit by a meteor than attacked by a wolf.”
She said wolves are very shy of human beings and it is only unhealthy, habituated wolves that have attacked human beings, with the only recently recorded death being a Canadian woman who went into a group of sick penned wolves.
The National Park Service wolf FAQ claims that there “has never been a documented case of a healthy wild wolf seriously injuring or killing a human being in North America.”
As for decimating elk and deer populations, Weiss said that wolves would certainly decrease the herds, but that the natural balance would be restored to pre-wolf extinction numbers.
“Wolves would not destroy the prey base they depend on for their survival,” Weiss said. “Ninety percent of wolf kills are the sick and weak animals and wolf hunts are only successful 20 to 25 percent of the time.”
In addition to the wonder and beauty of wolves, Weiss says that it is the ecological healing that takes place that makes it so important to restore wolves to the wild.
Weiss cited two Oregon State University studies of how the wolf recovery program in Yellowstone National Park benefited aspen trees along the rivers that had a ripple effect throughout the entire ecosystem.
Weiss said that prior to the wolf introduction, the elk grazed along the river banks eating the small aspen shoots, preventing a large number of trees from growing to maturity.
With the wolves roaming the forest, the elk moved out to the meadows and more aspens began grow to full height. This prompted the beavers to return and build dams that created pools, that in turn began to support more fish.
Weiss said the coyote population also drops where wolves have recovered leading to more small animals such as fox and raccoon.
“Wolves are the bioengineers of the forest,” Weiss said.
Not everyone agrees with Weiss.
Siskiyou County supervisors previously passed a resolution opposing any effort to introduce or reintroduce the wolf to the county.
According to Klamath Alliance for Resources and the Environment executive director Nancy Ingalsbee, ranchers fear for their livestock and private property rights.
“The program that reimburses the ranchers makes it very difficult to prove that the animal was killed by a wolf,” Ingalsbee said. “It doesn’t pay off like they claim. If a rancher shoots a wolf on his property, he is liable for prosecution under the Endangered Species Act.”
Ingalsbee claims that wolves are vicious predators that kill without regards to need or type of prey.
“When predators roamed the United States,” Ingalsbee said, “nobody went out without a gun.”
Ingalsbee also says that without any natural predators, wolves would quickly overrun the forests.
The Defenders of Wildlife can be reached at 202-682-9400. The Klamath Alliance
for Resources and Environment can be reached at 530-842-9030.