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Posted: 6:43 AM Feb 8, 2010
Wolves Pushed as Park "Stewards" on a Tight Leash
Small packs of gray wolves may help curb over-sized elk and deer herds.
Reporter: AP |
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9 Comments 
Researchers say small packs of gray wolves introduced to national parks and other sites across the country could curb over-sized elk and deer herds that are eating up parklands.
Keeping the predators on target would be a tricky prospect: They breed prolifically, roam hundreds of square miles and easily pick up a taste for cows and sheep.
The proposed solution, outlined in a paper for the journal BioScience: Neuter the wolves, fence them in, fit them with shock collars and add a tracking device so they can be hunted and killed if they get too far afield.
Wolves were wiped out across most of the country last century, letting big game herds balloon from the Adirondacks to the Sierra Nevada. That led to overgrazing in many parks and protected areas.
The researchers, led by a National Park Service biologist in the Midwest, propose using wolves as park "stewards" that could the way back to ecological balance.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Latest Comments
If they rarely pick on live stock to eat. what about the 120 sheep that was killed in Dillon, MT last fall in 2009. All of them were killed and not one of them were eaten. That was thats mans life line. He may of gotten some money form the government but what about the blood line that he lost. He has to start all over which is not easy. Every day you hear of a rancher losing a cow or other livestock to the wolf. The wolf has became lazy and will only get lazier. The elk and deer population is getting smaller and to the point where you don't even see any sign of them. There has been times where I have seen more wolf sign then elk sign for weeks. The wolf needs to be managed. I am not saying kill them all, but manage the numbers and keep all the wildlife numbers healthy>>>>> Also wolves were in central Park before humans I feel that we need to reintroduce them to central Park.
Sandy - hardly the case (hobby vs. neccessity) as my family depends on an Elk and Deer every year for meat. It goes way beyond just going down to the store and buying meat off the shelf. Meat is meat and something will have to die to provide it. Just the way it is.
Prime example of how Special Interest Groups (Sierra Club, PETA, Anti-Hunting) have lobbied effectively without understanding the impact of their positions. With the decrease in the Wolf population, herds have become ‘lazy’ with migration routes, impacting soil conservation, grow yields, and are in direct competition with cattle because there is simply no incentive for them to keep moving when the food is plentiful and there is no danger to run from. The Deer and Elk herds were healthier (i.e. no CWD) and those of us born in the mountains where the best candidates to manage the very land we grew up on – it does not mean shooting a wolf every time, but instead, using them in partnership with our land. Now, some Eastern or Berkley environmental science major or Cali-Tex transplant who wrote a thesis on the rat population in Manhattan, has became an expert on Rocky Mountain ecosystems becuase they are "educated" and we call this the solution.
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