Utah breaks into annual wolf-kill charts
By brandon loomis
The Salt Lake Tribune
For the first time, federal government charts show wolves have killed range animals in Utah. Last year’s tally: three cattle and four sheep.
The wolves also took a hit in the Beehive State, according to the interagency annual Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery report released Friday, losing one to government agents in Rich County.
Those numbers are nothing compared to the wolf-reintroduction zones to the north, where, for example, the report says Idaho lost 148 sheep and 75 cattle to wolves in 2010. Meanwhile, government agents and ranchers protecting livestock killed 78 wolves in the Gem State.
But Utah officials argue that it’s the start of something bigger if wolves retain federal protection.
On the whole, the wolf population that spans the region between Yellowstone National Park and eastern Oregon and Washington remained little changed last year, at 1,651 wolves in 244 packs, the government reported.
So far Utah has not confirmed any breeding packs, though individual wolves have traipsed through the state’s northern reaches. Biologists say one actually killed a cow here previously during a brief period when wolves were under state management.
Wolf advocates such as Defenders of Wildlife say the apparent stabilization of the population — down from 1,733 in 2009 — shows that the native predators can be managed and should not be feared.
“It means the hysteria about wolf populations growing forever is overblown,” said Mike Leahy, the group’s Montana-based Rocky Mountains representative. So too is the assertion that wolves will wipe out livestock herds, he said, when the animals in the recovery states are responsible for less than 1 percent of pre-market livestock losses.
But Leahy, whose group for years compensated ranchers for wolf kills before the states took over most of that task, is aware that Utah officials have taken a hard line against wolves. He said such attitudes could prolong court battles and keep wolves a federally protected species if it’s clear that states aren’t interested in managing viable populations.
The Utah Legislature this winter passed a resolution calling on Congress to remove federal protections for wolves, and Utah Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Mike Styler testified to lawmakers that wolves are the modern T-rex and are used by environmentalists as “biological weapons.”
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources’ mammals coordinator, Kevin Bunnell, said he has been expecting confirmation of wolf breeding within Utah for a few years.
“It’s just a matter of time, but when that will be I can’t say,” he said, “because the dynamic has been kind of the same for four or five years.”
State officials are troubled that they cannot get court approval to manage wolves when their numbers far outstrip the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s original goals for Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.
“The fact that they’re five times their recovery goal and they still can’t get them delisted,” Bunnell said, “is kind of frustrating to a lot of people.
It’s especially frustrating in Rich County, where last year’s Utah livestock losses occurred. County Commissioner Bill Cox said he believes ranchers should be allowed to kill wolves.
“We obviously have some issues in our county,” he said.
States and private agencies paid nearly $454,000 in compensation to the region’s ranchers for wolf kills last year, according to the report, though Utah is not paying any compensation so long as federal species protections apply. Federal agencies spent about $4.6 million on wolf management in the region last year.