Proactive hay purchase helps rancher, and wolves

Just north of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, in central Idaho, wolves are denning. This area is rich in wildlife such as elk and deer, and consists of thousands upon thousands of acres of wilderness and National Forest land it is certainly great wolf habitat.

In this region there are a number of ranchers who are getting ready to move their cattle, which consist of cow/calf pairs, from their private ranch land to their grazing allotments in the National Forests. In one rancher’s case though, he will be keeping his cattle on his ranch for a couple weeks longer this summer. It turns out that a wolf pack is denning right in the middle of his allotment, and he is worried about bringing his young calves right onto the doorstep of this wolf pack. He came to Defenders to see how we might help out in this situation. With some input from Wildlife Services we decided that the best way to help out was to cost-share some emergency hay for his cattle, so they could be kept fed and kept on the private ranch for a couple extra weeks. This would give time for Wildlife Services to try and haze the wolves out of their den and further into the forest. The pups are old enough now and so they should be able to keep up with the adults in the pack when they travel. When, and if, the wolves are moved, the cattle will be brought onto the allotment to graze for the summer.

In these types of situations the outcome is often unknown. The wolf pack may move just over the next hill and return at a later date, or they may go far away and not return to the allotment for the whole summer. All one can do is to try and keep the wolves away from young calves, and to try and ‘teach’ the wolves to associate cattle with big, scary people who the wolves do not want to mess with. In this case we worked with the producer and Wildlife Services to evaluate the situation and decide which tools and strategies would work best for everyone, including the wolves.

Check this blog regularly to get updates on this proactive project, as well as the many others we are involved in across the northern Rockies.