Cattlemen’s Groups, Others Call for De-Listing of Gray Wolf

A wolf management program that is more science-based and sensitive to local community needs is being promoted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and other groups in Washington, D.C.  The encouragement comes as the U.S. government considers removal of gray wolves from federal protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Gray wolves, once close to extinction in the lower 48 states, received protection under the ESA of 1973.  But serious efforts to recover populations have increased numbers since the mid 1980s, and in fact the reintroduction program in the northern Rocky Mountains has reached its recovery goals.  Wolf policies were relaxed under the ESA in March, with the status of the species changed from “endangered” to “threatened” in all areas of the country except the Southwest.

“The gray wolf has made a quick and remarkable comeback,” according to Eric Davis, NCBA president and a beef producer from Bruneau, Idaho.  “At this stage, the most logical level at which decisions can be made about their impact on our society and on nature is in the states.”

Wolf management should be science-based, compliant with federal regulations and fully sensitive to local economic and social impacts, ultimately achieving an appropriate balance between wildlife, habitat, livestock and people.  To that end, adequate federal funding should be provided to states to ensure that costs of these new management programs will not be borne by hunters or ranchers. 

Many leaders and members of state livestock associations agree.  “The wolves were doing better even before their reintroduction to Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996,” says Steve Pilcher, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association.  “The increasing livestock losses our ranchers are facing make it important that we quickly provide the right to protect their animals.   Equally important, we want to help determine ways we in Montana are going to live with the threat that wolves represent.”  

Pilcher says Montana ranchers recognize that wolves are in the ecosystem to stay. Nevertheless, the natural conflict with livestock must be addressed, and can best be addressed on a state rather than national level.

To remove wolves from federal protection and turn their management over to state wildlife agencies, certain recovery criteria must be met:

• Populations must be stable.  The number of gray wolves has climbed well beyond recovery goals for wolves in the eastern U.S.  In the Rockies there have been an excess of 30 breeding pairs for more than three years, meeting the recovery goals for number and distribution in the West.
• Assurances must be made that the species will survive.  In September, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and other affected state wildlife agencies submitted wolf management plans to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for review. 

“There are about 44 packs in Montana, Idaho and in-and-around Yellowstone National Park,” says Davis.  “Ranchers shouldn’t have to compromise the lives of animals on their operations through wolf management that doesn’t recognize what wolf populations can do.  With proper and science-based wolf management in the states, we can help wolves coexist in nature with the cattle that are so important to our society.”