Thursday, April 07, 2011
Learning to live with wolves
My great-grandfather homesteaded in eastern Oregon back in the days when wolf packs roamed the range. By the time his son -- my grandfather -- claimed a homestead, wolves were gone. Bounty hunters and settlers, perhaps including members of my family, had shot, trapped and poisoned Oregon's gray wolves to extinction. Now, after a 60-year absence, wolves are mounting a historic comeback across our state. In 2009 several wolves, descendents of wolves reintroduced to the Rockies in the mid-1990s, wandered from Idaho into Oregon. Today three packs, comprised of two dozen wolves, live in northeast Oregon. For the first time in decades my relatives must readapt to the reality of ranching with wolves on the range. But what does this look like where the rubber meets the road? What is different about living and ranching in a state with wolves? Can we coexist with another top-of-the-food-chain species? The decisions we make today will determine the answers to these questions. One thing I know is that Oregon ranchers are some of the most determined and resilient folks on earth. Given practical guidelines and the proper tools, Oregon livestock producers can take proactive steps and successfully protect their livestock from wolves. In fact, some ranchers have already started the transition to wolf-compatible livestock practices. Over the past month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been outfitting ranchers with electric flagging to string around livestock pens near wolf packs. This proactive measure, which shocks wolves if they try to enter a livestock pen and teaches them to stay away, has been an effective deterrent to wolves in the Rockies, the Great Lakes and Europe for years. In neighboring Idaho, Lava Lake Lamb has experimented with tools to safeguard flocks in an area prolific with wolves. Lava Lake has adopted wolf-compatible ranching practices, from range riders patrolling the range on horseback to carefully disposing of bones and animal parts, and the operation has nearly eliminated livestock losses to wolves. The company, which has won multiple awards for its business practices, provides an excellent model for livestock producers in Oregon...more
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2 comments:
What this blogger fails to understand is that no livestock producer should have to do anything to protect his livestock from wolves. Wolves were introduced, in 1995, with congressional instruction that they could not 1) harm livestock producers; 2) harm local economies; and 3) harm hunting opportunities. They have done all three. The only way electric fencing works is if it completely surrounds the property. There isn't a rancher alive who has the time or money to string electric fence completely around his property. It isn't feasible; and one short and the fence doesn't work. The amount of additional work that the presence of wolves is creating for ranchers is beyond what they can cope with and still do everything that needs done. Wolves must be kept away from livestock operations or killed. That is the only solution that works. When one dead animal costs the producer over $1,000, no one has the right to say they haven't the right to kill the predator responsible.
Put all wolves on east bound 18 wheelers, collars and all.
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