Ranchers say weights have declined since wolf reintroduction ( Middle class under attack )

Associated Press ^ | May 5, 2006 | Jim Knight

[george76]

Cattle ranchers in the Paradise Valley say shipping weights have declined since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995.

They say their cattle stay close to gates instead of grazing entire pastures.

Wary animals tend to eat less than relaxed animals.

[skeptoid]

That's the first triple-post I've ever seen, let alone posted!

[girlangler]

Hey,

Next time you get some free time on your hands, check out the Red Wolf reintroduction project in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, my neck of the woods.

A total failure. And I have a friend in N.C., who wrote for years for a tabloid outdoor magazine, and who convinced me these danged "red wolves," were really a cross breed of coyote and wolf.

But they were supposed to be endangered species, and were protected.

Nothing surprises me anymore.

[george76]

"my calves and cattle were also an "endangered resourse," at least they were to my family and neighbors..."

Many family farmers and family ranchers are an "endangered resourse."

As are many small towns with only one main industry like logging, mining, hunting, farming...

[george76]

Do you have any links ?

Thank you.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

It took our forefathers a great deal of effort and expense to rid our lands of these predators. We should offer great pause before ignoring their far more qualified wisdom and undoing their gift of an inheritance.

[Wizy]

under the guise of "ecologic diversity," or some such nonsense.

Please explain how ecologic diversity is nonsense. Are seriously going to tell me that actual scientific research is nonsense. Well you know...who am I to judge, I mean...I only the first half of my life on my grandparents farm, watching their topsoil erode (their livelihood) year after year, while they didn't recognize the problem. And the last ten years or so studying this "nonsense" to figure out how to do something about it. While "wildlife" and "ecologic diversity" are not my primary areas of knowledge, they do play a vital role in it. But as I said before who am I to judge, it is much better to shoot first and ask pesky questions later. I mean just because some of these people telling us this "nonsense" about biodiversity spent decades actually learning something about it, doesn't mean they know anything.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

It took our forefathers a great deal of effort and expense to rid our lands of these predators. We should offer great pause before ignoring their far more qualified wisdom and undoing their gift to us of an inheritance of stable wildlife stewardship.

[Wizy]

You need to back track a bit their and read some earlier comments.

[Sparticus]

This wolf reintroduction has one purpose and one purpose alone. To end big game hunting. Period. The primary means that state fish and wildlife departments around the country utilize to manage populations of deer and other big game is through hunting. They've done remarkably well over the past 100 years, bringing many animal populations back from the brink.

The enviros know that an unregulated wolf population in an area will kill deer and elk in such large numbers that a general hunting season can't be sustained. That's their real agenda. Stopping the mean, nasty hunters with their mean, nasty guns.

[george76]

We are forgetting our history.

We are also forgetting what really made us a successful society.

With Jay Bennish as an example of our unionized educational system, the future generations are in big trouble.

Our high school students are neither learning geography nor how to read, write, or do math.

Our youth will have a hard time competing with engineers and scientists from China and/or India. They do not know it now, but it will be very evident in 30 years. Then it will be too late.

[glorgau]

Wow, the ranchers will actually have to watch their livestock? What a burden.

[george76]

Once the Sierra Club lawyers and their friends end hunting, then they can continue to close access to all public lands.

This will also keep out hikers, fishing folks, families with kids, older and disabled people who can not hike the 30 miles to camp at their favorite spot.

Next it will end jobs in the small towns that offer guides for hunting and fishing.

The DUmmies have already closed many small towns that had depended for decades on logging, mining, ranching...

Then we will be forced onto government reservations aka government housing projects which are getting re-named the politically correct term : "affordable housing."

[Wizy]

It would be harsh wouldn't it.

[nightdriver]

"I mean just because some of these people telling us this "nonsense" about biodiversity spent decades actually learning something about it, doesn't mean they know anything."

And your sarcastic point is...? Just what did all these people learn in their decades of study? Did they ever incur the loss of income because of the protected activity of wolves and other predators? My guess is that they didn't. They only have a desire to impose their will on others who do.

The erosion of the topsoil of your grandparents' farm is analogous to the predators' indiscriminate killing (and, believe me, that is the way they do it) of my livestock.

Both situations rob the livelyhood. In the case of erosion, I planted grassed waterways and terraced my farm. In the case of predators, I ought-sixed them at every possible chance I could get.

[george76]

Six Wolves kill 650 pound yearling steer

By PERRY BACKUS

Montana Standard

ENNIS – Jim Nelson nearly had wolves at his doorstep Tuesday morning.

When feeding cattle in a nearby pasture in the Bear Creek area of the Madison Valley, Nelson was surprised to see six gray wolves feeding on a 650-pound yearling steer.

“He was so close that he could have thrown a baseball at them,” said his stepdaughter, Bennie Clark.

Clark said three houses are located within about 200 yards of the kill site.

“The kill was right in the center of all three,” she said.

That marked the fourth confirmed wolf kill in the Madison Valley in less than a week .

“We’re not moneyed people who can just absorb this kind of loss,” said Clark. She and her husband, Gary, owned the yearling that was killed.

“This has a huge impact on us ... we’ve told Ed (Bangs) that we have to live here and want to make this work.

Now we’re begging for help.”

[Wizy]

So rather than actually taking measures to prevent them from getting at the livestock. Its better to kill them regardless of what is actually necessary for sound ecosystem management? I guess were simply going to agree to disagree at this point. As far as my sarcastic point...its pretty easy to ridicule what effects you, when you don't actual understand it. It would be easy for me to point fingers at various agricultural practices for the effects they have had on our water quality, yet rather then that relatively "unproductive" line of thinking, I try to find ways and incentives for them to change their practices. There is always another way...removing a species from existence without actually understanding its role, or the consequences its loss will have on us, is foolish at best. Anyway I'm out for now, best to all. Oh and watch those "terraces" they tend to create scours, which can lead to large land slumps.

[george76]

Crowd protests wolf policy

By CAROLE CLOUDWALKER

A Hot Springs County rancher believes four gray wolves released near Meeteetse on Feb. 14 may have been illegally captured on his land.

The rancher, Frank Robbins, was among more than 40 people attending a March 2 Hot Springs County Commission meeting to lodge objections to the way federal agencies have managed wolves in the area.

The group extracted a promise from the commissioners to write to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state and federal legislators and the governor "to tell the feds that monitoring wolves on private property would be considered trespass," Robbins said Friday.

Robbins, who owns the 150,000-acre HD High Island Ranch on Owl Creek near Thermopolis, said he was told by a state predator control officer that eight gray wolves were ..."We think they split the pack," Robbins said, adding F&WS "absolutely" planted the wolves in Meeteetse.

"There is no doubt about it," he added.

Ed Bangs of Helena, Mont., wolf recovery coordinator for the F&WS... said "because legal action is threatened, we cannot talk about that situation."

Kruger, who also attended the Hot Springs Commission meeting, provided information about the incident to Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric, who has requested a Division of Criminal Investigation inquiry that might lead to charges of trespass.

Robbins, who has lived near Thermopolis about 10 years, said he runs about 3,000 head of Angus cattle.

He said one 3-5 year old cow weighing 1,200 pounds is valued at about $1,000.

"We're missing 10-15 head," Robbins said. His neighbor, who runs 300 head, is missing five.

He said his neighbor "has an airplane - he's flown the area" and cannot locate any of the missing animals...

Robbins' land is "five minutes by helicopter, up to two days by horse" via rough terrain from the Larsen Ranch near Meeteetse.

He says the federal government "turned my ranch into a recovery zone for the wolf," adding they "are willing to sacrifice us to get (wolves) delisted."

In 10 years Robbins says he has never received any payment for loss of cattle to predators.

In one case he said a predator control officer observed a wolf eating a dead cow, but could not say what killed it.

"They can't verify it, so they don't pay you.

[tertiary01]

The pioneers knew what they were doing when they shot wolves on sight, as I'm many sure remembered the stories their parents told of how wolves were used against the underclasses in Europe.

[nightdriver]

"So rather than actually taking measures to prevent them from getting at the livestock. Its better to kill them regardless of what is actually necessary for sound ecosystem management?"

Killing every wolf, coyote, and cougar (bears are also highly suspect) IS taking measures to prevent them from getting at the livestock!

Sound management of MY ecosystem required it.

[Don W]

Wen U spel lyke a idjit, peepul myte nawt tak U 4 a smrt gye.

Grammar is also quite important when trying to make a point.