K.C. Mehaffey
The Wenatchee World
TWISP, Wash. — In a place where wolf recovery is about as divisive as politics or religion, one program is cutting through the controversy.
For the last three summers, a pilot program has put patrols on the range to keep tabs on where the wolves are, and to check up on livestock that could be nearby.
Funded by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife with a match from ranchers donated mostly by the nonprofit group Conservation Northwest, the program expanded last summer to include five ranchers with cattle or sheep grazing in areas now occupied by wolf packs.
The idea is to prevent wolves from killing livestock. And so far, it’s working.
Twisp cattle rancher Karla Christianson, who signed on last summer, said she was initially skeptical about the program. She said she wants to get along with the wolves, but after signing the contract with the state and Conservation Northwest, she wondered what she was getting into.
“I thought, ‘What am I doing? I’m not going to tell any of the other ranchers I’m doing this,’” she said.
But after hiring Dale Cheney to patrol the Forest Service roads throughout a vast allotment near Carlton where she grazes 150 cow-calf pairs in the summer, she’s optimistic. “I feel like everybody in this has got a lot of common sense, and is working toward not taking one side,” she said.
Her cattle spend the summer in the same area where the Lookout Pack was discovered in 2008 as the state’s first wolf pack in 70 years. It’s also where she thinks wolves killed three of her calves in 2009.
After that year, the pack nearly disappeared — some of the pack members were poached. Now, the pack’s numbers are starting to rebuild, and she’s hoping this time, she can keep her cattle safe.
“I think range riding is about the best option to try to deter problems,” Christianson said, adding, “I feel like we’re doing something, at least, instead of just getting really defensive.”
Jay Kehne, outreach coordinator for Conservation Northwest, and a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife commissioner, said they started with one rancher in 2012, worked the bugs out and gradually built to five range riders last year. In addition to Christianson, they worked with ranchers in Stevens and Kittitas counties, and on the Colville Indian Reservation.
When a rancher signs up for the Fish and Wildlife program, they’re eligible for up to $10,000 from the state to hire a range rider and pay for gas and other costs. “How they choose to use it is up to them,” he said.
For the ranchers involved so far, Conser-vation Northwest has donated $9,000 for each of the five range riders hired.
After three summers, ranchers who participated have not lost any livestock to wolves.
Kehne said they don’t expect the success rate to always be 100 percent. “Wolves are wolves, and one in eight packs turns to depredation,” he said, adding, “It’s a big territory with a lot of wolves and a lot of livestock.”
Steve Wetzel, wildlife conflict specialist for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in Ellensburg, said other states where wolves have recovered use a range rider program, and it works.
It may seem costly, but with up to $2,000 compensation for each cow killed by wolves, it doesn’t take long to pay for itself, he said.
“What we don’t want is livestock depredation. And the most important thing is to be proactive,” he said. When a wolf pack turns to livestock for food, they are more likely to return in the future, he said.
The program can save time investigating wolf kills for the agency, and it helps with wolf recovery. “It also helps the livestock producers,” Wetzel said. “They only have so much money and time to devote to their entire operation. When you throw in wolf management, that’s just one more thing they have to divide their time and profit margin on.”
To help prevent wolf-kills, ranchers have access to information about where the wolves are, and can use that to determine where to send their range rider.
Kehne added that riding the range is an age-old practice for ranchers. But just as times have changed, so have their modes of transportation. While some of today’s range riders use horses, others ride motorcycles, four-wheelers and even mountain bikes. Some stay out on the range, others go home every day.
“People think it’s a horse and cowboy,” he said. “But the image of a range rider isn’t necessarily how it all gets done. It’s whatever tool works.”
As wolves recover, the need for more range riders — and funds to help ranchers pay them — is going to grow, Kehne said. “From our standpoint, we want to continue to support the ranchers we’ve been supporting,” he said. Future success of the program will depend on the private or nonprofit support to help livestock owners provide the human presence shown to deter wolves from killing sheep and cattle, he said.