Conservation Northwest

Predators and prey Jasmine Minbashian, Special projects director, jasmine@conservationnw.org Recovering Washington's Wolves How wolves—and deer—are essential Here in Washington, we are just beginning to see the return of wolves, so time will tell how many wolves our mountains are capable of supporting and what impact they will have on deer and elk populations. But it's highly likely that the story will be somewhat similar to other areas where wolves have recovered such as Idaho, Montana, and Minnesota (see article, "Reaching an appropriate balance"). The deer and elk will still be here in good numbers and hunter success ratios will remain stable (as we have seen in Idaho), but the animals will be smarter, healthier, and less brazen as a result of new predation pressures. This may make hunting more of a challenge, but that will also make for better hunters. It's also important to remember that the return of wolves could be beneficial for areas that are currently plagued with an overabundance of deer and elk that are causing problems on highways, farms, orchards, gardens, and ranches. In just two years, nearly $700,000 in damage claims from deer and elk were filed in Washington and nearly half of those claims were awarded by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). Continued next page "Appropriate balance," continued from page 11 have already begun to rapidly decline is in the Locksa. Garton said he did modeling work on the area in the late '70s and early '80s and had dire predictions for the area. At the time, the area was home to about 4,000-5,000 elk. Now, numbers are below 2,000. "The reason for that is not wolves, even though a lot of people want to blame it on wolves," Garton said. The real reason, he added, is that fires in the early 1900s turned the forest land into brush fields perfect for elk habitat. Now, the forest is once again taking over. "We were forecasting for years that (elk numbers were) going to decline. A bull elk feeds at sunrise. In areas with wolves, elk But hunters have a hard time with that," feeding behavior often changes, becoming more vigilant than in locations without wolves. Garton said. Wolves "are sort of picked © David Moskowitz as the reason or the explanation, whereprevious three decades. On top of that, as it's really changes in the vegetation." As for wolves, Garton said Idaho the state has been stricken by harsh winters, leading to a steeper decline than Fish and Game's estimate of a minimum of 835 wolves in the state is as accurate expected. "Those are issues here in Idaho. If we a number around. He also said Idaho is get severe winters and then if we keep probably near saturated and numbers hunting them at the same level…those should begin to level. "Wolves are very territorial, so that are going to knock elk numbers down," social behavior limits their numbers in he said. "We also sort of forget that we have re- an area," he said. "They will set up a territory, and they ally been in elk nirvana for the last couple decades. We've had the best conditions will defend that territory so that another for elk probably ever that has existed. wolf pack or another animals can't come So we shouldn't expect that to be the in and start a new pack there…. The numbers of wolves don't increase forever. They norm—we've been spoiled, I'm afraid." One area in Idaho where elk numbers get to a very predictable number." 12 Thus, he doesn't buy into the antiwolf crowd's claims that the wolf population in the Northwest [states, including Montana] is already approaching 3,000 and that they will break out of control without human intervention. "It's crazy to think that their numbers will go to 3,000. I think that is very unlikely, I would bet we're close to the maximum number of wolves we're going to end up at," Garton said. He also shot down claims that the introduced wolves from Alberta, Canada, are significantly different than the native wolf population. "Those are wolves that had been in natural habitat very much like Idaho," Garton said. "If you were to try and find wolves that are closest to the ones that were here, that's as close as you can get." And the impact of wolves on elk populations in Idaho is overstated, he said, adding that two or three years ago Idaho had a record elk harvest. "If wolves have decimated the elk, how could that be?" he said. In fact, he said, wolves are actually making elk herds more productive by removing older cows from the population. He said a typical cow produces calves until 10 years old, but often live up to 18. "Even though the wolves were taking a lot of elk out of the here," he said "they made the herd dramatically more productive." Spring/Summer 2011www.conservationnw.org

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