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Defenders Magazine
On the Ground: Helping Ranchers, Keeping Wolves
Ranchers are often portrayed as a wolf's worst enemy. After all, conflicts between wolves and livestock have led to the deaths of many wolves in the northern Rockies. But the truth is that ranchers can be the wolf's best ally. Take Jael Kampfe. She's a fourth-generation rancher southwest of Billings, Montana. Her family's working cattle and guest ranch, the Lazy E-L, is home to thousands of cattle—and a few wolves.
Tucked into a hill with a sweeping view of the valley below, a wolf den on the ranch is one of the unique sights Kampfe and her ranch hands will point out to visitors who come from all over the country to experience the cowboy heritage. What they also get to see is the ranch's abundant wildlife, thanks to Kampfe's work to maintain the ranch as a sustainable habitat with wide open spaces for both livestock and wildlife.
"My grandfather taught me to think of myself as being in the grass business instead of the cattle business," Kampfe says as she looks over her pastures. "The better you treat the land, the better it will treat you." That attitude led to the adoption of sustainable practices at the ranch, such as frequently rotating cattle from pasture to pasture to prevent overgrazing. The result has been better forage for the ranch's livestock, and for the hundreds of elk, deer, moose, black bear and wild turkey that share the habitat.
All that also draws the ranch's other frequent visitors: gray wolves. The Lazy E-L lies at the foot of the Absaroka mountain range and adjoins the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. As the crow flies, it's about 30 miles from the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park—an easy distance for a pack of wolves to cover. And Kampfe's 12,000 acres have become an extension of the Yellowstone wolves' habitat.
Just over the hill, however, the story is very different. There, a former working ranch has been subdivided into much smaller "ranchettes"—second homes and retirement properties, an increasingly frequent occurrence in the West. In fact, a recent study by the American Farmland Trust found that 11 percent of all prime ranchland in the Rocky Mountain West is under threat of being converted into subdivided residential areas by 2020.
That's bad news not just for ranchers, but for wolves as well. "You've got to have these ranches intact," says Kampfe. You also need to ensure that ranchers and livestock can coexist with wolves.
That's the goal at the Lazy E-L. Kampfe has taken steps to reduce risks to her livestock, with support from The Bailey Wildlife Foundation Proactive Carnivore Conservation Fund, founded and administered by Defenders of Wildlife. The fund, named for the family that donated money to launch it, helps pay for the "range riders" that spend each summer keeping Kampfe's cattle safe by riding alongside them. If the riders' presence is not enough to deter a hungry predator, they may fire "cracker shells" to harmlessly scare the predator off with a loud bang.
One of Kampfe's neighbors, sheep rancher Vern Keller, protects his flock behind an electrified fence also paid for by the fund and constructed by Defenders' employees. The fence is hung with bright orange ribbons, or fladry, a centuries-old technique that deters wolves from crossing fences. Fladry works so well, in fact, that it can keep wolves away even if the power to the fence goes down.
Two winters ago, the solar panel that recharges Keller's fence failed. That night, two wolves visited the sheep pen. Their tracks in the snow the next morning told the story.
"They'd circled the fence a couple of times," Keller says. "Big fellas. You could see where they'd come up the hill and come up to the fence." But they stayed outside the pen, and the sheep stayed safe. "I thought it was amazing—they circled the whole fence and they never did come close to it," Keller says.
Tactics like this provide ranchers with tools to help keep livestock safe in wolf country—and that helps keep ranchers in business. Many ranchers operate with a narrow margin between showing a profit and losing money, and the loss of a few sheep or cattle one year can break the bank. "I don't think people realize just how tight the margins are. Three cattle can be the profit margin for that year," says Kampfe. "We don't hate wolves if they're not eating livestock. We only hate them when they eat our animals. It's the fear of no longer being profitable."
If a sheep or cattle ranch becomes unprofitable, ranchers can be left with few options other than selling their land—and watching it get chopped up into 20-acre parcels. With open space dwindling in the northern Rockies, keeping big ranches going is crucial—as long as the ranch managers are willing to be responsible stewards of the area's wildlife.
"Big ranches can be used as habitat corridors that allow wolves and other wildlife like elk and deer to get from one place to another," says Suzanne Stone, northern Rockies field representative for Defenders of Wildlife. "By making it easier for ranchers to live with wolves, we make sure those ranches, those corridors, remain intact. And maintaining open spaces for wolves and other wildlife is vital for their future in the Rockies."
Learn more about The Bailey Wildlife Foundation Proactive Carnivore Conservation Fund or check out our wolf blog, My Yellowstone Wolves. You can also visit www.giftsforwolves.org to learn how you can support Defenders' wolf-protection efforts.
