Ranchers find unlikely partner in
Defenders of Wildlife group
APACHE COUNTY — Ever since the reintroduction of the Mexican
gray wolf into the wild in 1998, ranchers in wolf country have
been dealing with a predator their ancestors worked to
eliminate.
And the wolves very nearly were eliminated. The wild wolves
that now roam the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest are the
descendants of only seven remaining Mexican wolves left when a
recovery effort for the species was launched in the mid-1970s
after the passage of the Endangered Species Act.
Now, nearly 20 years later, ranchers in wolf country are
still coming to terms with how to handle an another predator in
a business that includes many variables that affect the bottom
line and are outside ranchers’ control.
Some ranchers have found an unlikely partner in dealing with
wolf-related livestock losses — an environmental group called
Defenders of Wildlife.
Since 2002, Defenders of Wildlife has offered a Range Rider
program in which the environmental group helps pay the cost for
a summer position for a person who will stay out on the range
with the cattle and help keep track of the wolves.
The program has quietly grown over the years, as the number
of wolves has expanded and the number of ranchers who want to
participate has also grown. Starting with only two riders the
first year, Defenders is now sponsoring 15 Range Rider projects
with ranchers in Arizona and New Mexico.
Everything about the program focuses on building partnerships
and trust between ranchers, the Interagency Wolf Field Team that
manages the animals, and environmentalists. Creating those
relationships between people who have been outspoken opponents
of the Mexican wolf and suspicious of one another has been a
slow task requiring delicate diplomacy. And it is work that wolf
extremists — both haters and lovers — often oppose.
Craig Miller, the coordinator for the Mexican Wolf Range
Rider Program for Defenders, tries to protect the relationships
he’s worked hard to develop over the past 15 years. He’s happy
to tell you about some aspects of the program — how it’s funded,
how it works, the kinds of tools and techniques riders use. But
when it comes to the people involved in the program, he won’t,
and can’t, tell you anything.
Defenders has developed a strict confidentiality clause that
is part of the contract a rancher signs to become part of the
Range Rider program. That confidentiality is important because
the Mexican wolf is such a lightning-rod issue that ranchers who
participated in the program in the past have been ostracized in
their communities.
“We’ve intentionally kept the project low-key,” Miller
explained in an interview. “Nobody wants to be labelled a
wolf-lover. The wolf issue has the potential to create that kind
of conflict in a community. It also has the potential to bring
out the best in people to come together to solve problems.”
Focusing on the practical
One of the first things Miller makes clear about the Range
Rider program and the partnerships it forges with ranchers is —
nobody is trying to change someone else’s opinion about wolves
or wolf politics.
“People on the ground have legitimate concerns about raising
livestock in the presence of wolves,” Miller said.
Instead, the Range Rider program focuses on the practical and
thorny problem of how to successfully raise cattle in wolf
country. The intentional reintroduction of wolves into a wild
landscape shared with people has created a practical need for a
new kind of relationship with the animal. Instead of killing
wolves, how do we live with them?
“This was new. It was new to ranchers and it was new to us,
it was new to wildlife managers. Nobody had done any of this
before, so it was very exploratory,” Miller said of the wolf
re-introduction.
Keeping a human presence near cattle is a time-tested method
for protecting livestock. But putting cowboys on the range is
not cheap. The Range Rider program provides $1,500 per month
stipend from Defenders, which is matched by the ranchers with
in-kind assistance for the rider, such as providing a horse and
tack, a bunk and meals, access to a truck and fuel. Ranchers
often recruit a person they know and trust for the position, and
sometimes Defenders hires the rider. Every Range Rider position
is uniquely structured to meet the needs of the ranch that
sponsors it.
The Range Rider’s job is to stay out in the middle — between
cattle herds and nearby wolf packs that have a den with pups,
because those packs have a greater need for food and may be more
susceptible to killing cattle to meet their needs.
Riders keep track of the wolves’ location with radio
telemetry equipment provided by the IFT and by looking for
tracks and scat. They spend most of their time alone, out with
the herd or looking for wolf signs. Many camp out in the field.
Brandon Babb is spending his first summer as a Range Rider,
but he’s not a ranch-raised kid. Brandon is from Mesa.
“I didn’t grow up on a ranch. I have a lot more experience
with hiking and camping,” he said. He spends his days riding an
ATV instead of a horse, but his participation demonstrates the
flexibility of the Range Rider program. Although he’s not a
cowhand, Brandon can still fill the space between the cattle and
the wolves, and keep an eye on both.
That doesn’t mean that he sees wolves frequently. Mostly, he
says, he sees their tracks and scat.
It’s important, Miller said, for the Range Riders to give the
wolves some space instead of trying to locate and see them,
especially around den sites. If the wolves have found a good den
site away from cattle, Range Riders do not want to
unintentionally make them move their pups elsewhere by showing
up on their doorstep. Plus, it’s just not practical, as Brandon
explained.
“These wolves are pretty elusive, and there’s not that many
of them,” Brandon explained. “So it’s much easier for me to make
myself seen than to go and see the wolves. So that’s most of my
mission ... to make human presence around the cows.”
So how do you make your presence known to the wolves? One of
the simplest ways is to mark your territory the way the wolves
do — with urine. Brandon also uses battery powered lights at
night, called fox lights, to keep wolves away from cattle. The
fox lights are about the size of a lantern battery, and they
emit a bright random strobe light to scare the wolves away.
And Brandon moves around a lot.
“It’s important to not let my presence become fixed,
like a scarecrow,” he said.
Brandon heads back to his host ranch when he needs a
shower and a night in a bed. When he’s there, he will
speak with the ranch manager if he needs to give an
update on something he’s seen on the range. He also
stays in regular contact with the IFT. The Range Rider
contract also requires participating ranchers to
maintain regular contact with the IFT.
It is the results of the Range Rider program that
have contributed to its steady growth.
“In places where we have Range Riders, we
significantly reduce depredations,” Miller said.
A rancher who has participated in the program for a
number of years spoke on the condition that they remain
anonymous.
The rancher said that the program has definitely
helped reduce losses from wolves. The rancher decided to
participate in the program after losing more than 10
calves. The losses were confirmed to be caused by
wolves.
“If you’re in the cattle business and you keep having
these losses, you can become so degraded you could just
walk,” the rancher said. “After all those losses in one
year, we still use it (the Range Rider program) to this
day.”
While the rancher still may lose a calf or two, some
years there are no losses at all, even with more than
one wolf pack in the area. The program, the rancher said
can be costly but “is well worth it.”
Public-private partnership
The Range Rider program is funded by a $150,000 grant
from Defenders of Wildlife and the Mexican Wolf Fund,
and $150,000 of in-kind matching contributions from
ranchers. Combining those funds allows states and tribes
to apply for $300,000 in matching funds from the USDA
Livestock Loss Demonstration Project which is managed by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Through a
competitive grant program, states and tribes are awarded
funds to reimburse ranchers for losses and to explore
new methods for deterring predators. In 2015, the
Arizona Game and Fish Department was awarded $40,000
from the program for depredation compensation and
$80,000 for “payments for presence” and prevention
measures.
Miller said the relationships that have grown up
around the Range Rider program are the most valuable
outcome.
“Most ranchers share the goal of wild places and wild
things ... but are also committed to sustainable
agriculture. Reconciling the differences, the conflicts
that can emerge between those two is really where we try
to focus our attention and resources,” he said.
Reach the reporter at
tbalcom@wmicentral.com
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