Idaho ranchers still waiting on wolf-kill cash

Idaho wildlife managers have yet to receive federal funding to compensate ranchers for 2012 livestock losses from wolves, as other Western states are also competing for a share of just $850,000 meant to offset sheep and cattle losses from the predators. The Times-News reports Dustin Miller, who heads Idaho's Office of Species Conservation, said the money will eventually be divided between paying ranchers for losses and funding efforts to avoid wolf-livestock conflicts. In 2011, the program paid Idaho ranchers about $100,000 for livestock losses. "Unfortunately, we usually have the highest level of depredations in the country, and if it's competitive, we may receive more funding than other states. But we can't be sure," Miller said. Federal officials say wolves killed 75 cattle and 330 sheep last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services agency that's tasked with assisting livestock producers in Idaho and the United States in protecting their herds from predators. Hunters' success rates for the canine predators also improved significantly last year: Hunters and trappers killed 320 wolves in the 2012-2013 season, up from 200 in 2011, to trim wolf numbers statewide to roughly 638. Last year, federal government wildlife agents also killed 69 wolves after determining they were targeting livestock. Todd Grimm, the director of Wildlife Services in Idaho, says it's difficult to draw too many conclusions from the number of cattle, sheep or wolves killed in a given year, as the number varies depending on numerous circumstances. For instance, wolves killed 103 cattle and 411 sheep and lambs in 2009, a year he remembers as particularly hard on producers' herds...more