Friday, August 19, 2011

Bad wolf—go to your den

Roughly 30 local ranchers gathered at the fairgrounds in Carey, Idaho, last week to talk wolves. But this was far from the typical wolf discussion. The workshop, possibly the first of many hosted by Defenders of Wildlife, took an unusual and widely unacknowledged tack: Don't shoot the predator, protect the prey. The morning served as a crash course in a host of non-lethal deterrents to wolf predation, from guard dogs to grazing rotations. It also marked the first attempt by Defenders to share with the public lessons learned over the past three years by the Wood River Wolf Project. Defenders of Wildlife spokeswoman Suzanne Stone says the project has field-tested numerous tools for decreasing livestock losses to predators, an approach that replaces the habit of killing problem animals with the concept of coexistence...more

Well, they didn't get much of a turnout and who do they blame it on? Ranchers. Ranchers that is who put peer pressure on their more progressive neighbors. The article states:

Stone says Defenders was "nervous" about hosting last week's coexistence demonstration. "We've been trying to fly under the radar on this project for quite some time," she says. "We just don't try to make any kind of public news about [these projects] because the wolf debate is so controversial that it puts a lot of pressure on the ranchers who are partnering with us."

"There was a poor turnout, because—and this is my interpretation—there's tremendous peer pressure right now for ranchers to maintain a solidarity," Niemeyer says of the Wood River Wolf Project workshop, which featured him as a guest speaker. "What it's going to take are some courageous, bold ranchers. We should be talking about keeping livestock alive."

There could be several reasons for the poor turnout, but I kinda doubt peer pressure was one of them.

The ranchers I was raised with and others I've grown to know just don't respond well to peer pressure and as a result don't apply it either.

"Hey Charlie", Ramon the rancher says to his neighbor, "you don't look well today."

"My neck's sore" replied Charlie.

Ramon asked "what the heck caused your neck to go sore on you"?

"Well", Charlie says, "I wanted to go to a wolf meeting tonight and I've been ducking peer pressure about it for two days now."

No, I just can't see that happening. The lady from Defenders may respond to peer pressure. And Niemeyer, the former federale may respond to peer pressure. But if a rancher thought something was gonna improve his operation and his bottom line he'd darn sure go to the meeting.


You see there's one thing the Defenders and the former federale don't have that is probably keeping the ranchers away. Its called credibility.

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