Of Wolves And Men

The foothills and mountains we ride daily here are constant reminders of the beauty and bounty Mother Nature provides. There are chokecherry bushes, wild plum and apple trees, and wild sage in abundance. We’ve seen numerous whitetail and mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and even two moose. Wild turkeys are everywhere, along with some grouse and partridge. The creeks teem with trout. If you go hungry here it’s your own fault.

With all that game, it’s only to be expected that predators will be found here as well. The smaller ones such as bobcats, coyotes, and foxes prey on the smaller animals; cottontails, squirrels, field mice, and the like. The larger ones – mountain lions, bears, and wolves – are drawn to larger animals; the deer and antelope. We’ve seen cougars and bears here in the past, but not wolves – until this year. And that’s when the story begins.

It’s ironic that of all Mother Nature’s creations, only one has seen fit to decide he is better suited than She to manage the land and the beasts. I speak, of course, of man.

Back near the start of the 20^th century man decided to eradicate the wolves around here to protect the cattle herds. About 100 years later man decided to reintroduce wolves to the same areas where they had been eliminated. In this particular instance, it was Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone sits in the northwest corner of Wyoming, near the junction of the Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana borders. It’s about 200 miles from here. The powers that be – in this case the Department of the Interior – thought it would be a good idea to place a few wolves in the park to help restore the natural balance by controlling the deer population, which was getting out of hand. Armed with good intentions and an inability to see the inevitable long term consequences, the Dept. set loose several breeding pairs.

Like the people in charge of this program, wolves are both dumb and smart. They are too dumb to read a map and understand they’re supposed to stay within the park boundaries. Yet they are smart enough to understand that deer are fleet and evasive, making them difficult to catch. The elk and bison roaming the park are slower, but can do serious damage with their horns and hooves. But cattle … ah cattle. They are slow, dumb, and basically defenseless. Just the thing for a hungry wolf pack. The fact that the cattle all live on the other side of that invisible park boundary matters not to the wolves.

But it matters quite a bit to the ranchers.

Wolves are at the top of the food chain in these parts. They have no natural predators to keep them in check. Bears and mountain lions are solitary creatures and no match for a pack of wolves. So as the wolves in Yellowstone multiplied and spread it was inevitable that some would leave the park and prey on cattle. However, the government refused to allow any sort of control over the wolves, maintaining them as an endangered species. In reality, of course, it was the cattle that were now endangered.

As I said, this ranch is 200 miles from Yellowstone. But last month it suffered its first confirmed wolf kill. The cattle here represent a sizable portion of the ranch’s income, and any lost animal is a reduction in that income.

In the local bars ranchers speak of their ‘three S’ approach to wolf control: shoot, shovel, and shut up. It’s not that they go out hunting wolves. But when they come across one threatening their herds they do what they must to protect them.

For this the government brands them as wrongdoers and imposes hefty fines.

The states have appealed to the feds for relief, in terms of allowing some form of predator control. To date those pleas have fell on deaf ears, although there appears to be some softening of the feds’ position as of late. Until then, things will be much as they have been in the west.

Take matters into our own hands and don’t expect much help from the government.

There’s a lesson for us all in there somewhere…