Updated March 24, 2008
Stephen Gordon lost more cattle to grizzly and wolves than any
other rancher in his neck of the woods. In the 20 years that he ran
his Diamond G Ranch herd on the Dunoir federal grazing allotment
just east of Grand Teton National Park, predators killed between
200 and 250 calves. Since 1999, wolves also killed four horses and
nine dogs, three of which stained Gordon’s porch red with
blood.
Those losses were a significant hit to the
checkbook and the spirit, says Gordon. “We’re not just
talking about losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in livestock,
but also the amount of effort to try to keep wolves out of the
cattle, like having all our ranch hands out in the herd all
night.”
State and federal wildlife agencies were
also losing on the deal. Wildlife Services and the Wyoming
Department of Game and Fish spent considerable time and energy
killing 13 wolves and relocating 8 wolves and several bears in the
past nine years.
Hoping to help everyone involved,
including wildlife, the Forest Service retired the 49,000-acre
Dunoir allotment in February with the help of the National Wildlife
Federation. The Forest Service also retired the 33,700-acre
Icehouse/Willow Creek allotment in Idaho, 20 miles west of
Yellowstone National Park. Both retirements are part of a wildlife
federation program designed to help ranchers buy leases away from
core predator habitat. The conservation group pays ranchers a
market value based on an allotment’s size and the amount of
forage available there. It then works with federal land managers to
retire the allotment. On the surface, the two most recent
retirements, like those before it, seem to benefit all parties. But
for Gordon, the deal is the high card in a losing hand.
Since their Wildlife Conflict Resolution program began in 2002, The
National Wildlife Federation has paid about $2 million for at least
27 allotments in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In total, the
program has opened an area twice the size of Grand Teton National
Park— about 500,000 acres — for wildlife habitat.
Problems on the lands have ranged from bears munching mutton to
concerns that bison may spread brucellosis to cattle.
“We’ve retired the most contentious livestock regions
in the area, the ones that have been the knock down drag out fights
for ten or more years,” says Hank Fischer, a coordinator for
the conservation group. Surprisingly, none has been controversial,
he says, because the group targets ranching operations like
Gordon’s where wildlife conflicts are hurting the bottom
line.
The program seems to benefit all stakeholders:
Agencies spend less time, energy and money killing or moving
problem predators; bears, wolves, moose, elk and other wildlife can
expand their ranges, interact with other populations, and take
advantage of critical spring and fall habitat; and ranchers often
use their payments from the environmental group to lease other land
where they lose fewer animals.
But despite the payments,
some ranchers simply can’t find new range for their herds,
says Gordon. “The problem is, my allotment was adjacent to my
land, and if I lease land somewhere else, I have to truck my cattle
there,” he says. “I can’t do that. I already
truck them twice.”
Although Gordon calls the
program “better than nothing,” he would rather run
livestock and have a business than be bought out. “I think
the program benefits everybody,” he says, “but in some
senses we’re being forced to do this because of the wolf
reintroduction.” Gray wolves were reintroduced in the area in
1994 and 1995, and before that Gordon says he had much less
depredation.
Gordon will continue to graze cattle on the
lower 14,500 acres of the Dunoir lease, where grazing is still open
and roads and some buildings have already been built. He has cut
his herd in half, and is concerned about making ends meet with a
smaller venture.
While the change may hurt Gordon,
Fischer can think of only one other instance where a rancher
didn’t use his payment to buy a grazing lease elsewhere. And
the absence of Gordon’s cattle should benefit Yellowstone
wolves. Meanwhile, the Icehouse/Willow Creek retirement is great
news for grizzly bears, says Kim Barber, a bear biologist with the
Shoshone National Forest. “Grizzly just can’t resist
the opportunity to kill a sheep,” he says. “It’s
like a kid in a candy store.” Icehouse/Willow Creek was the
last sheep operation within a designated grizzly conservation area
that surrounds the park, although some U.S. Department of
Agriculture sheep do cross the conservation area to reach other
ranges.
Although the allotments could be reopened for
grazing, Fischer doesn’t foresee it happening. “At this
point we haven’t heard any inclination at all to reopen these
allotments once they’re closed,” he says. “Keep
in mind, these are allotments that have caused headaches and
drained agency resources for years. Would you want to hit yourself
in the head with a hammer again?”
The
author is an intern for High Country News.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
