Let the Gray Wolf Roam Free

The reintroduction of the gray wolf into Yellowstone National Park and nearby portions of Idaho and Montana has been a major success, and the worst fears of ranchers have come to nothing. The wolves are not killing off cattle and sheep as ranchers insisted would happen. Livestock losses since the program began in 1995 are but a fraction of the predictions in the environmental impact statement upon which the program was based. It’s time for the ranchers to end their bitter political and legal opposition to the return of the gray wolf, which historically roamed Yellowstone until it was eradicated early in the century.

From the 31 wolves imported in 1995 and 1996 from Canada, the wolf population in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem has risen to an estimated 160, say park biologists. At that rate, the Yellowstone wolf can be removed from the endangered species list not many years hence. That would mark an overwhelming success for the program.

The basic quarry for the wolves has been Yellowstone elk, primarily animals that are old or ill. Except for the depredation of two rogue wolves, livestock deaths have been minimal, park officials say. Conservation groups have compensated ranchers for any loss of stock.

But in spite of this success story, the American Farm Bureau Federation continues to pursue a lawsuit seeking to remove the Yellowstone wolves--they probably would have to be killed--based on a technicality in the Endangered Species Act. The Farm Bureau won in the federal district court in Wyoming, and the case is now before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

At the outset of the program, the environmental impact statement forecast a loss of 40 to 50 sheep and 10 to 12 head of cattle to wolves each year. Biologist Doug Smith says only 83 sheep and eight head of cattle have been lost since the program started four years ago. Most involved wolves that were transplanted to Yellowstone and were not members of the original packs or their offspring. A single wolf was blamed for 63 of the sheep deaths.

“If you look at livestock mortality in Wyoming or Montana, it doesn’t even register,” Smith told the Yellowstone Journal. “Your average wolf doesn’t kill livestock.”

Smith’s group now is measuring the impact of the wolves on other large predators in the park--grizzly bears, black bears and cougars. In the meantime, Yellowstone has become the premier place in the world to view wolves in the wild.