Wolves back in cattle country

Ross Williams and his son, Sterling, set out to feed the cattle on their Blackfeet Indian Reservation ranch 25 miles northwest of Browning on a zero-degree day in March 2009. As usual, the peaks of Flattop and Triple Divide mountain in nearby Glacier National Park poked into the sky like spires, but the real eye-opener was yet to come. Father and son arrived at a draw where the cattle were bunched within view of the family's log cabin. Near the top of a hill, 200 yards above the cows, was a pack of gray wolves. Williams managed to count 14 wolves in all. "Just lookin' like they were ready for dinner," he said. The longtime rancher had seen wolves around before, but he was shocked by this pack's size. "We're going to have problems," he told his son. He was right. May marks the one-year anniversary of the state and tribes taking over management of the once-endangered wolves from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The big Livermore pack, which once numbered more than 20 animals, exemplifies the successful return of wolves to Montana. With the state's wolf population now more than 500, packs are moving into what Montana wolf program coordinator Carolyn Sime calls "marginal" habitat in cattle and sheep country. As a result, responding to livestock-wolf conflicts proved to be a major challenge for state officials in 2009. Statewide, wolves killed 202 sheep in 2009 — almost double the amount killed in 2008 — and 97 cattle, up from 77 a year earlier. The total amount of livestock killed by wolves was a state record...more