Conservation Northwest

From discovery to recovery Jay Kehne Okanogan outreach associate, jay@conservationnw.org Washington practice is called ���range riding��� and after the first grazing season���s losses the Dawsons were willing to give it a try. Range riders also work with calves to reinforce herding instinct, so the animals stick with their mothers instead of running. The ���Blackfoot Challenge��� in Montana has been working with a range riding program for about 10 years now. It involves 14 ranchers, with over 3,000 head of cattle and employees 4-5 range riders each grazing season. By combining their efforts, ranchers have been able to keep their losses at about 3-4 animals per year since 2007. Just about as many wolves documented to chronically depredate cattle have had to be killed each year to maintain a balance. Pilot program on a local ranch In the spring of 2012, together with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Conservation Northwest set up a Pilot Range Rider Program with the Dawsons. Luckily, too, two male wolves let down their guard and were trapped and collared before the cattle were turned out. With cattle and wolves overlapping territories every day, the range rider now has her work cut out for her. It was important for the Dawsons to have a range rider they trusted and who knew the cattle rotations used to graze the allotment. It is also important that the range rider know wolf behavior The mere presence of range riders with cattle that are widely dispersed in big landscapes can disrupt wolf predation patterns and increase the odds that calves will stick closer to their mothers and not become prey. Photo from the Dawson Ranch, courtesy Inland Northwest Land Trust and where the collared wolves are located based on the telemetry data provided by the collars. Both collared wolves were fitted with hi-tech GPS satellite collars that transmit location data every six hours. One of the biggest problems so far in the pilot project has been the rugged and isolated topography of the area, which makes satellite transmissions sketchy and makes getting four solid wolf locations each day difficult. Even so, John Dawson has this to say about the project, ���I think that so far the project is working about 60 percent, and once we figure out how to get better wolf location data to our range rider it can only improve.��� Having daily human presence around the cattle is a big step, regardless of telemetry data gained. Knowing where the wolves are is important when the cattle are moved from one range to another. For example, if wolves stay in one location for more than about 18 hours, biologists guess that they have killed something and are eating the carcass. If the range rider arrives at the site, and it turns out to be a calf, they can haze the wolves away and secure the site so a determination can be made if compensation is appropriate. Hopefully this also helps keep wolves from becoming habituated to the taste of livestock. Cattle and wolves cover big territory and so must a range rider. The Dawsons, their range rider, and WDFW biologists discuss what might work best where wolves and cattle territories overlap. Jay Kehne Keeping the Northwest wild The real proof The real proof of whether a range rider program can help ranchers in the thick northeastern Washington forest cover won���t really be known until the very spread-out cows come home this fall. If fewer calves are missing and weight losses have been reduced, it may very well be that ���range riding��� could become a normal tool that ranchers all over Washington can use to manage their cattle as wolves move through the state. Range riding is a tool that helps replace the feeling of ���helplessness��� with the knowledge and determination that ���something can be done��� where wolves and cattle overlap. It���s not that some cattle won���t die or that some wolves won���t have to be killed, in accordance to our state���s management plan. But by keeping both of these losses to a minimum we hope to both maintain the time-honored tradition and livelihood of ranching and witness the recovery of wolves in our state. Fall 2012 7

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