A new report out this week shows the number of wolves in the northern Rockies continues to grow, bolstering success for one of the standout success stories to play out under the Endangered Species Act. Predictably, more wolves mean more potential conflicts with humans - primarily with people's livestock. Impressively, wildlife managers have moved decisively to address those conflicts in a manner that should bolster public confidence in their ability and commitment to sustain wolves in balance with their surroundings.
The number of wolves estimated in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming is at least 1,264. The number in Montana is pegged at about 300. Federal and state authorities are in the process of removing wolves in the region from the list of threatened and endangered species protected under federal law. Although wolves began recolonizing northwestern Montana about a quarter-century ago, the big breakthrough came in 1995 with reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho using transplants from Canada. Wolves had been exterminated from this region through trapping, poisoning and shooting by early in the 20th century.
Left to its own, nature balances itself. We live in Montana, not Eden (similarities duly noted), and nature isn't on its own here. People affect the balance in myriad ways, so it's our responsibility to help create balance.
That means restoring wolves and encouraging them to prosper. It also means controlling their numbers when necessary.
As the number of wolves grew this past year, this week's report noted, the number of livestock they killed also grew. The numbers are extremely small as a percentage of livestock raised in the region, but at 170 cattle and 344 sheep, they're the largest number of confirmed wolf kills since reintroduction. The numbers are high enough to raise public concern if the problem were ignored.
It wasn't ignored. Authorities have been responding aggressively to predation on livestock by wolves. Government agents and, in a few cases, private landowners authorized by the authorities, have killed more than 150 wolves blamed for killing or harassing livestock. Such predator control is no long-term strategy for ending conflicts between livestock and wolves - no more than the relentless shooting of coyotes has solved any rancher's worries. But a short-term remedy can be helpful nonetheless to a rancher whose livelihood is on the line. Eliminating problem-causing wolves helps even as bigger-picture efforts, such as rearranging grazing patterns, show more long-term promise. Killing the troublemakers helps maintain public support or at least tolerance for the rest of the wolves. This is an approach that has worked fairly successfully with other wildlife.
The more successful we are at growing wolves, the more their numbers will require control - for their own good, as well as the good of other wildlife and the rest of us. Development in and around the region limits the amount of suitable habitat into which wolf populations may expand. Too many wolves in a limited area - like too many of any animal - creates imbalance and the potential to eat themselves out of existence. If there isn't enough natural prey to sustain them, they'll be more likely to turn to livestock or stray into other forms of trouble. Too many wolves eating too many deer and elk portend conflict from another direction - people who also look to game animals as a source of food. Wolf numbers will rise and fall naturally to a degree. Good management will help keep the numbers from rising too high or falling too low.
At present, controlling wolf numbers amounts to government agents shooting or trapping them as situations dictate. Eventually, we could see wolf populations regulated the way many other wildlife populations are - through hunting. That's when we'll know for sure wolves are here to stay - not so much when people can hunt them, but when we can manage them routinely, just like we do with bears, lions, elk, deer and all the rest of our native wildlife.
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