From Vial Daily:
Tony Prendergast’s XK Bar Ranch sits slightly south of Crawford, Colorado, near the Smith Fork of the North Fork of the Gunnison River on the southern edge of the agriculturally rich North Fork Valley. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison lies to the southwest. The 260-acre ranch butts up against the West Elk Mountains, four miles east of the West Elk Wilderness, almost smack-dab in the middle of where gray wolves could be released this winter.
He lives in a small, strawbale house, built in the trees next to the main pasture. His cow dogs, Huckle and Django, follow him everywhere. His son, Darby, is a ranch partner and lives in an airy, 100-year-old house on the property with his girlfriend and two dogs, Pancho and Lefty.
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U of M study suggests humans have impacted how wolves hunt deer
From KARE 11:
ST PAUL, Minn. — Humans may be unwittingly impacting the health of the deer herd in northern Minnesota by allowing wolves to hunt more efficiently.
That is the early conclusion of new research carried out by the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, in conjunction with partners including Northern Michigan University, the University of Manitoba, Voyageurs National Park and the Voyageurs Wolf Project.
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FWP Releases Draft of New Wolf Conservation and Management Plan
From Flathead Beacon:
Despite their generally shy and elusive nature, in recent years gray wolves have frequently found themselves at the center of controversy and litigation in Montana. As conflicts about species conservation and management fuel politicized debate, stakeholders have vastly different visions about what proper wolf population management should look like in the state.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) released a draft of their 2023 Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan last week, the first update in 20 years, to guide future wolf management policy. The department is currently accepting comments to incorporate public perspectives as they finalize the document. They will not, however, be creating an advisory committee with representatives of stakeholder groups.
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Perceptions vary as Colorado prepares for wolf reintroduction
From Vial Daily:
Tony Prendergast’s XK Bar Ranch sits slightly south of Crawford, Colorado, near the Smith Fork of the North Fork of the Gunnison River on the southern edge of the agriculturally rich North Fork Valley. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison lies to the southwest. The 260-acre ranch butts up against the West Elk Mountains, four miles east of the West Elk Wilderness, almost smack-dab in the middle of where gray wolves could be released this winter.
He lives in a small, strawbale house, built in the trees next to the main pasture. His cow dogs, Huckle and Django, follow him everywhere. His son, Darby, is a ranch partner and lives in an airy, 100-year-old house on the property with his girlfriend and two dogs, Pancho and Lefty.
Click here for the full story.
Meet the leader of Yellowstone’s wolf-watching pack
From 9News:
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — The search for wolves in Yellowstone National Park starts by spotting a different kind of pack — the human kind.
Wolf spotters line the road whenever they spot an animal. And then more people join. And a few more. Until what seems like half the park’s visitors are zoomed in on their scopes to a tiny wolf-shaped speck way in the distance.
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Dan Stahler: Yellowstone Wolf Project’s New Alpha
From Mountain Journal:
FARM BUREAU CRITICAL OF WISCONSIN’S WOLF MANAGEMENT PLAN
From Brownfield:
A Wisconsin farm organization is not pleased with the state’s new wolf management plan. Kevin Krentz with Wisconsin Farm Bureau tells Brownfield farmer members are disappointed the DNR got away from its numerical goal for the wolf population. “In the past, we’ve had plans with managing wolves to the 350 population, and two administrations, both the Trump Administration and the Obama Administration has approved delisting the wolves with Wisconsin having a plan to manage those wolves.”
Krentz says farmers and rural residents in the northern half of the state were not taken into consideration when drafting the wolf management plan. “If you’re going to be making a decision, you need to be having a public hearing in areas that are directly affected by these animals.”
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Fish and Wildlife Commission subject to new transparency measures
From Montana Free Press:
Newly bound by a settlement between a wolf advocacy group and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the seven-member Fish and Wildlife Commission charged with “wise management” of the state’s fish and wildlife resources conducted its business with a particular eye toward transparency when it met Oct. 19.
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Wildlife symposium returns
From Jackson Hole News and Guide:
One of Jackson’s oldest multidisciplinary summits, where conservation meets the local ecosystem, returns to full in-person programming for the first time since 2019.
The Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative’s Jackson Hole Wildlife Symposium will present projects, panels, data and novel mindsets to combat pressing environmental questions while finding the answers in a unified environment.
The symposium’s free keynote address on Thursday night features Ignacio Jiménez, an internationally recognized conservationist and author of “Effective Conservation: Parks, Rewilding, and Local Development.” Jiménez will discuss effective conservation action and pull from experience from around the globe.
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US zoo saving endangered red wolf, one dental checkup at a time
From Reuters:
EATONVILLE, Washington, Oct 25 (Reuters) – The endangered red wolf, the lone wolf species native only to the United States, is slowly coming back thanks to a breeding and reintroduction program that also takes special care of the wolves’ teeth.
The Tacoma-based Point Defiance Zoo is conducting dental exams and teeth-cleaning in its managed care program. Broken teeth “would prevent them from eating meat very well,” said Karen Wolf, the zoo’s head veterinarian.
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Wisconsin DNR Board votes to approve wolf management plan without numerical population goal
From Wisconsin Examiner:
The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board voted unanimously Wednesday to implement a new wolf management plan, approving the Department of Natural Resources’ decision not to include a numerical population goal over the objections of Republican lawmakers and pro-hunting groups.
The board is now entirely made up of appointees of Gov. Tony Evers, including four new members, who were appointed to the body last week by Evers when Republicans in the state Senate voted to fire his previous appointees, partially because of their stated support for the DNR plan.
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