Cheyenne's Howl

Printed in Mountain Messenger on Friday - December 5, 1997

Letter from Defenders

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I just got a letter from Rodger Schlickeisen who is the President of Defenders of Wildlife. He shared with me a lot of information that I will now report to you. As my readers know, Defenders is the organization that came up with the Wolf Compensation Fund that provides fair market value compensation to any rancher in the northern Rockies for any livestock that is lost to wolf predation. Now you don't have to worry about me. As long as the KP Cafe keeps sending me buffalo burgers, I promise I won't eat any ranchers; oh yeah, or their livestock either.

Most ranchers have become more aware of the facts about wolves and other wildlife and the facts are they do not present a greater threat to their livelihoods as some of the extremists would lead you to believe. In fact, do you remember the little blizzard we had here in Colorado a few weeks back? According to state and county officials as reported by Rocky Mountain News staff writer Deborah Frazier, between 12,000 and 15,000 cattle died because of that storm alone. We wolves had nothing to do with that one. I'll bet Defenders are glad that they don't compensate ranchers for Mother Nature's misbehavior.

Believe it or not, I actually have many rancher friends and most of them tell me that wolves and coyotes cause them little or no trouble at all. A sheep rancher from Montrose said that the only trouble he had ever had was from a pack of seven domestic dogs that came from the Olathe area. One night they attacked his flock of sheep and caused the deaths of 180 of them. He also lost some sheep to a bear, but never to a wolf or coyote.

You know about the Wolf Compensation Fund, but did you know about the Defenders Wolf Restoration Fund? This fund offers a $5,000 cash reward to landowners who allow a wolf to den and raise pups undisturbed on their property. This protects the wolves and compensates the land owner for the temporary loss of use of his land. It's kind of like the wolf is paying rent. Already $10,000 has been paid to two private property owners in Montana. This fund is also used to pay rewards to bring wolf killers to justice. As I reported in a previous column, a tip led to the arrest and prosecution of a wolf killer. A local man was convicted of killing an alpha male near Red Lodge, Montana. This alpha male left behind his mate and eight pups to survive on their own. The killer was sentenced to a prison term and also fined $10,000. This was the maximum penalty allowed by law for violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, extremists in Congress want to do away with the ESA. In fact two years ago, Congress blocked wolf funding just as the preparations were under way to bring the second group of wolves from Canada to Yellowstone. Fortunately, Defenders of Wildlife were able to step in and help bring the wolves down to Yellowstone. More next week.

Cheyenne