Posts Tagged: Mini-Grant

Wolfwatcher

4 hours ago

When a wolf attacks livestock...
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When a wolf attacks livestock, most ranchers believe there is only one thing to do: Raise your gun and try to get the predator in your crosshairs.

“Particularly around here, everyone knows they don’t want to shoot OR7,” said John Stephenson, wolf biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “It would bring fury upon them.”

During the winter and spring of 2019, the Rogue Pack — led by alpha male OR7 — killed at least eight of Birdseye’s cattle and two of his dogs. Birdseye suffered about 40 percent of the confirmed livestock losses in the entire state of Oregon that year. And the toll was both emotional and financial.

“People don’t realize the intensity and the frustration,” he said. “Time after time after time, having these animals killed.”

A fence could work. If done right, similar fences in other states boasted 98 percent success rates. But doing it right would not be cheap. For a fence to be effective against wolves, it would need to be electrified round-the-clock and be made of high-tensile wire that could carry a charge and hold up to the harsh Cascade Range winters. The fence only needed to be five feet high, but it had to be three miles long to encircle the perimeter of the property. It would cost more than $60,000 to build and Birdseye would then be on the hook for its upkeep.
In September, the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center finished a GoFundMe drive to raise the final $6,000. In November, a local crew installed the fence, as well as the solar panels that send 10,000 volts of electricity through its three miles of wires.

“So far, so good,” he said. “We’re all in kind of the same boat there — the biologists and me, the cattle owner. We’re both standing around with our fingers crossed, hoping this is going to be the solution to the problem.”

photo: John E. Marriott Wildlife and Nature Photography ... See MoreSee Less

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