I was out of town when this article appeared on 6/12. It has some very important FACTS about the reintroduction of wolves to the southwest. mjh
ABQjournal: Ranchers, Environmentalists Agree It’s Time for a Change for Grey Wolf By Tania Soussan, Journal Staff Writer
State and federal biologists who worked on the five-year review said wolves should be allowed to set up territories outside the current program boundaries, something they can’t do today.
As part of an earlier program review in 2001, an independent team of scientists also recommended scrapping the boundary rule. It also recommended that ranchers take some responsibility for cattle carcasses that can attract wolves, and that wolves be released directly into the Gila Wilderness.
Current rules allow only wolves that have been released in Arizona and then been recaptured to be let loose in New Mexico.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has not moved forward on any of the significant changes recommended by the scientists, but it has proposed some restrictions on wolf releases at the request of ranchers. …
Ranchers say slowing down releases would give the program time to get a better handle on the number of wolves in the wild.
Ranchers believe there are 100 or more wolves in the wild, while the program estimates the population at 51-56, plus an unknown number of pups born this spring. …
The Industrial Economics study for the first time compiles numbers on livestock depredations from the government and from the ranchers. The researchers concluded that anywhere from 37 to 245 cattle, sheep, horses and dogs were killed by wolves in New Mexico and Arizona from 1998 to 2004.
Based on those numbers, the economic impact to ranchers was $38,650 to $206,290, including the market value of the animals killed, the costs of injuries from wolf attacks and the value of the 10 hours or so it takes to prepare each claim for compensation, according to the report.
Pay close attention to the figures in the previous two paragraphs. Over a period of 7 years, *all* animals killed by wolves average in a range from just over 5 animals / $5,500 per year to 35 animals / $29,470 per year (somewhere between one animal every other month to 3 per month — these are *all* animals, not just cattle). Below, you will note that (1) up to 34,800 cows have grazed in that time and (2) Defenders of Wildlife has paid ranchers $33,000 in that same period.
The FACTS show the ranchers are greatly misrepresenting the impact of the wolf. mjh
But the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, which pays the compensation for lost animals, said all ranchers must do is send in a report prepared by the government and sometimes make a call to report the death.
“They have to put an envelope in the mail,” said Craig Miller of Defenders of Wildlife in Tucson.
Defenders of Wildlife has paid Southwest ranchers more than $33,000 in compensation since 1998.
Even using the high estimate of losses provided by ranchers, wolves killed only about a quarter of 1 percent of the 34,800 cattle in the area in 2002? the year with the most depredations.
But Schneberger said there are a lot fewer than 34,800 cattle in the area now, so the percentage killed by wolves is larger.
An average of 4 percent of the cattle in the area died from causes other than slaughter in 1997, the year before the wolf program began, according to the report. …
Defenders of Wildlife helps ranchers pay for extra riders, fencing and other measures. …
The fund has helped pay for six projects this year. … Still, Miller said the fund is underused. …
The wolf program also has benefits, researchers say. There is a public “non-use value” or intrinsic value in preserving the Mexican wolf that is hard to measure, according to the socioeconomic study.
Federal and state government spending on the wolf program totals about $1.5 million a year, with a benefit of 31 jobs, according to the study. Although not all that money nor all the jobs are in the recovery area itself, there is spending and staff based among the wolves.
The chance to see wolves has attracted some tourists to the area, a trend that is expected to increase as the wolf population grows.
There also are ecological benefits, as demonstrated by wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park. Wolves there reduced elk populations that had been overgrazing riparian vegetation. That change, in turn, benefited beavers, bears, foxes and birds.
No similar ecological research has been done in the Southwest, but Robinson said it’s reasonable to assume wolves have started “sharpening the wits of prey species.”
ABQjournal: Mexican Gray’s Presence in Wild Challenged By Tania Soussan, Journal Staff Writer
Mexican gray wolf reintroduction in the Southwest is required by the federal Endangered Species Act.
There are close to 300 of the endangered wolves at 47 captive facilities in the United States and Mexico. But the only Mexican gray wolves in the wild in the United States are part of the Southwestern reintroduction effort. [mjh: about 55 in the wild]