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Case Study--The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho

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Case Study--The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho 77".1rine Vnl 11 Nn 2 Resolving Conflicts Between Endangered Species and Man: Case Study--The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho by Paula Hartman I. Introduction I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfiess mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God a new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise. In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-linedjunipers. I now suspect thatjust as a deer herd lives in mortalfear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortalfear of its deer. -Aldo Leopold in a Sand County Almanac Ever since the creation of a wolf recovery team in 1975, public interest in the return of wolves to North America has grown. The 160,000 letters commenting on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for wolf reintroduction into the Yellowstone region and Central Idaho represent the highest public response ever to an EIS.' Yet human reintroduction of the wolves is more symbolic than tangible because wolves have been busy reintroducing themselves. Since 1986 wolves have been successfully reproducing in and immediately adjacent to Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana. Wolves have reproduced in other areas in northwestern Montana too, but all of these groups have been removed or relocated in response to livestock depredations. Sporadic yet persistent reports of wolves in northwestern Montana and Idaho exist, but no pack formation or reproduction has yet been documented in Idaho.2 Wolves have become the rope in a political and environmental tug-of-war.3 Wolf recovery opponents represent several interests. Stockgrowers worry about livestock depredation. Outfitters and hunters worry about big game population losses to wolves. Land developers are concerned about prohibitions on development in and near the recovery areas. Because of these concerns, state and local governments have raised management and control issues which the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) felt had to be addressed if reintroduction is to succeed. 4 More is at stake here than the future of wolves in the Rocky Mountains. The future of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) itself is at issue. Success with wolf reintroduction may help neutralize attacks on the ESA and aid recovery of other large predators such as grizzlies.' May 1995 H. Background A. The Region: Yellowstone and Central Idaho Three states are included in the current recovery efforts: Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. The greater Yellowstone region, including about eighteen million acres of federal, state, Native American, and private land, contains a population of 220,000 people. Population growth is rapid, and roughly ten million people visit the area each year.6 Central Idaho supports a population of less than 100,000 people and encompasses over 15 million acres, only fifteen percent of which are privately owned. Agriculture, including ranching, accounts for less than ten percent of total personal income in both regions, whereas the services industry, including tourism, represents thirty-five or more of the economy.' Tourists have plenty of reason to visit. Both regions contain spectacular scenery characterized by rugged mountain ranges like the Tetons and the Bitterroot and significant watersheds including the Snake and Salmon Rivers. In addition to Yellowstone National Park, the regions are home to Grand Teton National Park and all or part of fourteen national forests. Wildlife viewing in Yellowstone is world famous, and Central Idaho is populated by 400 or so species of terrestrial vertebrates.8 Ungulate (hoofed mammals including elk, deer, moose, and bighorn sheep) populations have been increasing and may be at carrying capacity in some regions.9 B. The Wolf The wolf that once lived in Yellowstone is known as the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf (Canis lupus irremotus).10 One of twenty-four subspecies of the gray wolf found in North America, the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf lived at one time throughout nearly all of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and parts of Washington, Oregon, and South Dakota." The subspecies is now believed to be extinct. The elimination of the wolf from its historic range was entirely due to a combination of human actions working against the wolf, including: (1) human settlement and land development in wolf habitat, (2) introduction of domestic livestock, (3) misunderstandings of wolf ecology and habitat, (4) superstition and folk lore, (5) territorial management programs, and (6) elimination of prey across a large portion of the wolf's range.12 Even after establishment of Yellowstone in 1872, big game and predatory ...IT1he Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf animals were slaughtered in the park.13 lived at one time throughout nearly all Although President Grover Cleveland of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, andparts assigned the Army to protect park wildlife in of Washington, Oregon, and South 1886, the Army continued predator control.14 Dakota. The subspecies is now believed Prior to creation of the National Park Service to be extinct. (NPS) in 1916, Congress authorized predatory animal elimination from all public lands, including national parks. 15 NPS policy did not shift away from predator control until 1926.16 No wolf pack activity has been confirmed in Yellowstone since the 1930s, although reports of wolves continued to filter in.'7 Since the Environs VoL 18. No.2 late 1970s there have been no verified reports of wolves in Yellowstone and the wolf is "believed absent" in Wyoming."8 Unlike the situation in Wyoming, biologists have confirmed existing, natural wolf populations breeding in Montana.19 As for Idaho, although confirmed wolf sightings occurred, no known breeding pairs exist in the state.20 In 1973, the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) listed the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf as endangered.21 In response to a trend among taxonomists recognizing only four or five (rather than twenty-four) subspecies of the gray wolf that once lived in North America, ' the Secretary listed the entire species Canis lupus as endangered in the forty-eight contiguous states, except Minnesota. Current FWS efforts to recover the wolf in Yellowstone are formally directed at the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf. The wolf is listed as a state endangered species in Montana. Where necessary to alleviate property damage, Montana law allows taking of state endangered species under a permit issued by the state. The wolf is also listed as endangered under Idaho law, and state statutes allow taking wildlife, including wolves, to protect human life and property. The wolf is listed as a predator in Wyoming and may be taken at any time without limit.24 C. The Conflict After the decline of buffalo and Native Americans populations in the West were drastically reduced, settlers moved cattle into the area. Although cattle depredations were initially rare, by 1883 the Montana territorial legislature found it necessary to enact the first predator bounty.? As fences became more common and depredations of cattle more noticeable, hunting was significantly reducing native ungulate populations.' Settlers competed with wolves for available game and cattle became an alternative prey base for wolves. Demands upon the states to eliminate predators became what was described by one ecologist as a "pathological jihad."' As the federal government began asserting its power over the public lands, the stock interests felt that it was unfair to pay grazing fees for the use of forage on lands "heavily infested with wolves ... unless some degree of protection from predation was simultaneously afforded."2' Responding to the livestock interests, the federal government went into the predator control business in 1914.9 As the costs, inefficiency, inequities, and liabilities of predator control increased, the program became increasingly difficult to defend. 0 Today, predator control programs are clearly an economically inefficient subsidy to the western livestock industry.3 The true magnitude of the threat to Demands upon the states to eliminate Northern Rockies livestock from wolves is predators became what was described by not fully known. In 1973, the administrators one ecologist as a "pathologicalfihad." of federal predator control admitted that no one knew the extent of predator damage in the west, and that the government had never attempted to keep records of such damage. 2 But wolves do kill livestock and reintroduced wolves will undoubtedly encounter livestock. After all, although cattle are not allowed in Yellowstone, the park's acreage comprises only eleven percent of the Yellowstone Ecosystem, while private land makes up twenty-four percent.33 May 1995 91 In attempting to predict the magnitude of livestock losses that will occur upon reintroduction and recovery of wolves, biologists have looked to recent wolf/livestock interaction records in other regions such as Minnesota. Although wolf populations declined rapidly in Minnesota under predator control programs in that state, by 1975 Minnesota officials halted legal, public killings of the wolf. With the advent of a subsequent recovery and control program, Minnesota currently holds the largest wolf population (about 1,550 to 1,750 wolves) in the forty-eight contiguous states.' Studies in Minnesota, where wolves live among dairy farms, show that very few domestic animals are killed by wolves. The rate in Minnesota is less than one loss per 10,000 cows. 5 A single Minnesota farmer, however, was compensated $11,988 for wolf losses in 1991, proof that considerable losses can occur.36 Furthermore, it may be inaccurate to try and translate dairy farming losses into accurate estimates of losses for western beef cattle operations.
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