By PHIL TAYLOR of Greenwire
DILLON, Mont. — Earlier this month, a black wolf attacked and killed one of Rick Sandru’s calves as it grazed on a forest allotment in the upper Ruby Valley above his southwest Montana ranch.
As the wolf feasted on the 400-pound carcass, a range rider fired a shot, maiming the wolf and sending it scurrying into the woods, leaving behind a trail of blood.
The calf was one of countless livestock Sandru and other Montana ranchers lose each year to wolves, coyotes, grizzlies, black bear and mountain lions that prowl these mountain ranges.
What was different about this month’s kill is that Sandru for the first time was able to prove it to federal agents.
A worker hung the cow carcass up in a tree and returned the next day with a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to verify the cause of death. Sandru was compensated for the calf, and a scavenger, likely a bear, tore the carcass from the tree a day later, an easy morsel.
“That’s one wolf that we don’t have to worry about,” said Sandru, a third-generation rancher who wears a cowboy hat and a mustache and whose cattle graze sun-swept pastures among pronghorn, elk and sage grouse. “But I’m sure it has a lot of friends.”
Indeed, wolf depredations are a fact of life for Sandru and other ranchers in the Ruby Valley. Many, if not most, wolf kills can never be proven because the wounded animals just disappear into the woods and don’t return. Some cattle are found dead, but cannot be proven as wolf-killed.
Sandru said a calf was killed a couple of years ago by a wolf that grabbed it by its face, crushed its skull, gave it a shake and broke its neck.
“They’re killing machines,” said Sandru of the wolves. “I don’t have anything against any animal, but I have a lot against the Endangered Species Act when it doesn’t consider its impacts on the people.”
Many southwest Montana ranchers also complain that wolves have driven wild elk herds down from the mountains onto ranches, where they forage on native grasses and increase the cost of feeding livestock. Some say livestock are coming home from the forests skinny due to harassment from wolves or other predators.
Sandru’s experience is not uncommon in rural Montana, which faces a growing population of wolves that have moved south from Canada or were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and have disbursed north and west. Still more wolves have disbursed into the state from their reintroduction in central Idaho.
The gray wolf has been protected by the Endangered Species Act since shortly after the law was passed in 1973. But the wolf population has since grown to nearly 1,700 in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, wildly exceeding original recovery goals.
So in an unprecedented move, Congress in April delisted the predator in Idaho and Montana and parts of three other states, a move that drew protests from environmental groups who warned it undermined the word and spirit of ESA.
‘We didn’t want the wolves’
But proponents say the delisting was a necessary response to growing pressure from ranchers and hunters and widespread frustration in the West after three earlier delisting attempts were thwarted by environmental lawsuits.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D) also inserted language in Congress’ bipartisan continuing budget resolution to prevent groups from challenging the delisting in court, though the rider itself is being challenged on constitutional grounds in a Missoula federal district court.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy yesterday heard arguments in the case and told court observers he expects to quickly issue a ruling, according to the Associated Press.
For now, licensed hunters beginning in September will be able to bag up to one wolf each in Montana — and up to 220 statewide — in a season officials hope will reduce the animal’s population by about 25 percent.
For sheep rancher John Helle, the hunt is a good start but is far too conservative to have a meaningful impact on wolf depredations.
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(Source: www.feeds.nytimes.com )