Yellowstone Treasures Blog

While we wait for a court decision about a March settlement between conservation groups and the U.S. Department of the Interior concerning the Yellowstone wolves, I will pass along a few details of that settlement and also parts of an interesting winter interview with Doug Smith, the wolf expert who has long been the leader of the Yellowstone Wolf Project.

COURT DECISION

According to the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, “Wolf management in the Northern Rockies took a step forward Friday, March 18, when a coalition of 10 conservation groups . . . announced a legal settlement with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The agreement was filed in a federal district court in Missoula, where the court reviewed it six days later and will decide soon whether to support it. . . .”

“If the court OKs the settlement, wolf management will return to the states of Montana and Idaho. Meanwhile, Endangered Species Act protections will be retained in the states where wolves remain threatened: Wyoming, Oregon, Washington and Utah. . . .”

“The settlement comes on the heels of a 2010 annual report showing the Northern Rockies wolf populations holding steady. A minimum of 1,651 wolves in 244 packs, and 111 breeding pairs roam Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, with 500 wolves calling Greater Yellowstone home.” [Note, however, that fewer than 100 wolves are now believed to be based in the park itself.]

“Several bills have been introduced to the 112th Congress ranging from an effort to permanently prohibit listing in the Lower 48 to laws focused strictly on Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.”
You can read the whole article at: http://www.greateryellowstone.org/issues/wildlife/Feature.php?id=38.

INTERVIEW

Many people have blamed the decline in Yellowstone’s elk population on the wolf reintroduction. Asked if this is accurate, Doug Smith said: “The park has lost half of its elk population—but it’s not all attributable to wolves. What I like to stress is that having fewer elk is not a bad thing. We had one of the densest elk populations in the world. By bringing that population back into the proper balance, we’ve allowed other life forms in the park to flourish."

Later the interviewer asked, “Should the wolves be protected under the Endangered Species Act?” I thought Smith’s answer was balanced and wholly appropriate. He said: “The wolves have biologically recovered and should be delisted. But they have not politically recovered and people can’t agree on how to manage them. You can’t talk about wolves without talking about anti-wolf sentiment. It appears that when you can hunt wolves, you reduce the level of animosity toward them. In the end wolves are better served from taking them off the endangered species list. It’s a form of conflict management and a benefit to wolf conservation overall.”

Smith summed up the interview this way: ”What I find so unique and important about the wolf project is its longevity. I recently read that 80% of wildlife research has a duration of three years or less. We’re in our 16th year. We tend to get caught up in the complexities of the web of life, but sometimes the simple things provide so much information. For us, being here in the park and watching the wolves day after day has been invaluable to our work.”

The whole interview is at: http://www.examiner.com/yellowstone-eco-travel-in-national/yellowstone-wolf-project-update-an-interview-with-leader-douglas-smith.