Southwest ranchers look for alternative strategies for dealing with wolves

A growing number of southwestern ranchers are adopting deterrence projects as they become resigned to living with increased wolf populations. Arizona rancher Carey Dobson has put up an electric fence with long slips of magenta plastic flagging over the entire length, April Reese of Greenwire reports for The New York Times. "From the time we started doing that in 2007 up to now, we've had zero wolf depredations," Dobson said. "I think the fence has a lot to do with it." Other ranchers have hired additional range riders to monitor herds. (Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Arizona rancher Sydney Maddock is letting her calves grow bigger before turning them out for grazing as wolves usually target young, old or weak livestock, Reese writes. "I don't know if it's going to work out or not," Maddock's ranch manger Eddie Lee told Reese. "But it's been two years, and it seems to be working." The deterrence projects represent a "new, more collaborative way of dealing with Mexican wolves, which the Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced to Arizona and New Mexico in 1998," Reese writes. Previous focus has been on removing wolves by killing or relocating them. "If they were to take the wolves out tomorrow, I'd be happy," rancher Barbara Mack said. "But they are here, and we have to work with everybody to try to get along and to survive."

"Nothing is as divisive as this," Chris Bagnoli, Mexican wolf interagency team leader for Arizona, said of the Mexican wolf reintroduction program. "But some folks have come to understand that they're here, and there are ways to live with it." About 15 ranchers in Arizona and 12 in New Mexico have tried deterrence strategies, and many have seen benefits. "One of the most effective things you can do is separate cattle and wolves," John Oakleaf, a senior Fish and Wildlife Service biologist with the Mexican wolf program, told Reese. "Reducing wolf depredations -- that's a common goal for sure. That's something wolf biologists and ranchers and everyone can all get behind." (Read more)