Professor offers unique wolf proposal

The question is as intriguing as wolves are controversial in Northeast Oregon. Would paying ranchers a meaningful sum for each wolf on their land make them more willing to accept the growing presence of wolves in this region? Peter Maille, an assistant professor of economics at Eastern Oregon University, posed this question Friday during a presentation in La Grande, “Rethinking the rancher-wolf relationship in Northeast Oregon.” Maille believes that the possibility of paying ranchers for their wolves should at least be examined in light of what the predator, whose numbers are growing in Northeast Oregon, costs ranchers. “Wolves are costly to ranchers in more than lost cattle and other livestock. There are indirect costs,” the economics professor said. The indirect costs are significant. They include lower conception rates among livestock and slower weight gain because of the stress animals being harassed by wolves experience. Maille said the preliminary results of one university study indicate the indirect costs ranchers encounter because of wolves may be many times greater than the cost of losing livestock to wolf kills. Wolves unquestionably hurt ranchers but they should not be discounted as harmful to the region overall for they offer potential benefits, Maille said. For example, they could conceivably boost tourism and may improve riparian habitat. Wolves, according to some studies, boost riparian areas by keeping deer and elk moving, preventing them from spending too much time consuming vegetation near streams. Such benefits theoretically could be boosted in at least a small way if ranchers became more accepting of wolves through a program which compensated them for the wolves on their property, Maille said...more