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News Local News Range rider program implemented to help reduce livestock losses to wolves
Range rider program implemented to help reduce livestock losses to wolves
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ENTERPRISE — In an effort to reduce wolf-livestock conflicts in Wallowa
County, a “range rider’’ will accompany cattle grazing this summer in
areas the Imnaha wolf pack is known to frequent.
The range rider began patrolling forest allotments in the Imnaha Wildlife Management Unit on July 7, working from early daylight through dark on most days of the week. ODFW also continues to have an employee monitoring wolf activity in the area most evenings, an ODFW press release said. “This range rider is a first for Oregon’s wolf program,” said Russ Morgan, ODFW wolf coordinator. “ODFW is committed to working with livestock producers to find practical solutions to wolf depredation.” The program, said Oregon Cattleman’s Association Wolf Committee Chairman Rod Chilkers, “is a non-lethal measure to limit wolf-caused livestock losses that has not been tried in Oregon. We want to do this to try to limit livestock losses to wolves during the summer grazing season.” The cooperative demonstration program between Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and area livestock producers is funded through a $15,000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant intended to help livestock producers take pro-active, non-lethal measures to reduce the risk of wolves to livestock. While not a panacea, range riders have been shown to help reduce livestock losses to wolves in other states where they have been used. “The grant requires matching funds, which are being provided by Defenders of Wildlife, the organization that proposed the range rider project,” said Suzanne Stone of Defenders. “Defenders has funded several other range rider projects across the region, but this is the first one undertaken in Oregon,” Stone said. ODFW will use part of the grant money to reimburse a Wallowa County livestock producer $4,950 for a range rider he is employing to monitor his cattle on public and private land, haze away any wolves near cattle and help keep other area livestock producers informed about wolf activity. This range rider will also monitor other livestock producers’ cattle on private and national forestland when wolves are in the area. ODFW will regularly share wolf location information with the range rider, who has also been equipped with a radio receiver to pick up signals from any of the three wolves in the Imnaha pack with a radio collar. Stone said that Defenders has been initiating projects like this across the region since 1997. Other tools they’ve sponsored are livestock-guarding dogs, fencing, carcass removal, alarm systems and alternative grazing locations. “We do our best to help ranchers adjust to living with wolves. If the conflicts are managed effectively, both sides win and that builds local tolerance for wolves,” Stone said. Childers said, “The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and the Wallowa County Stockgrowers are constantly working with ODFW on different non-lethal techniques to mitigate wolf-cattle conflicts.” Additionally, Defenders has provided radio-activated guard boxes and electrified fladry, fencing used primarily to protect sheep from wolves. “A lot of people are surprised that ranchers and wolf conservationists are working together,” Stone said. “We find we have the most important things in common: a deep respect for the land and a personal commitment to be good stewards.” For more information on wolves in Oregon, visit http://www.dfw.state.or.us/wolves/. |
