USFWS Adopts Wolf Management Plan To Help Safeguard Pets and Livestock

A wolf damage management plan to help protect pets and livestock from wolf attacks has been adopted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and addresses wolf attacks by using lethal and non-lethal control methods. The plan is included in an Environmental Assessment of the wolf and its impact on the environment.

The measures were approved by federal and state agencies in consultation with tribes. The lethal and certain harassment methods will only be allowed if wolves are removed from the federal Endangered Species List.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is in the process of removing the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List in the newly drawn Western Great Lakes Region, which includes Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and parts of North and South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, owing to growing wolf populations in some states, including Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Michigan's wolf recovery goal is a sustained population of 200 wolves for five consecutive years, which was met in 2004.

State and federal agencies are also hearing an increasing number of complaints about wolf sightings near residential and farming areas,

and wolf attacks on livestock. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) estimates that from 1996 through 2004, there were 67 instances in which wolves killed livestock or pets in Michigan. The frequency of verified wolf depredations has increased from about one a year during the 1990s to five to six a year in 2000-2001, and an average of 18 documented depredations in 2003 and 2004. The FWS claims wolf attacks on livestock and dogs have been increasing since gray wolf populations started to recover, and based on experience from other areas with increasing gray wolf populations, these problems and concerns are anticipated to increase as the gray wolf population increases.

In the Environmental Assessment, the DNR states that human intolerance of wolves has been the biggest factor in stopping the spread of wolves. Growing intolerance of the wolf has prompted the control plan because there was no previous way to address increasing wolf problems with livestock or other domestic animals. The FWS and DNR worry that negative attitudes by landowners and illegal actions by frustrated individuals will increase, and impair wolf recovery efforts.

Some of the federally approved non-lethal control measures described in the plan include using scaring devices, using livestock guard dogs, hanging "fladry," or waving flags, about 20 inches apart from each other around livestock areas, and capture and relocation. These methods can all be used without government approval.

Methods that require a federal permit include using shock collars, rubber bullets, and killing wolves. While the wolf is on the Endangered Species List, federal permits must be issued before these methods can be used.

Also in the management plan, the FWS lists three objectives for its wildlife damage management program, including responding within 48 hours to 100 percent of the requests for wolf damage management assistance, ensuring that there are no significant adverse effects on the statewide wolf population, and that management efforts contribute to the understanding, ecology, biology, and health of the Michigan wolf population.

While gray wolves are still listed as "endangered" they are protected from harming, harassing, or killing. If the wolf's protection status is downgraded from endangered to threatened, the DNR and Michigan Indian tribes will become responsible for managing wolves in Michigan.

The 130-page Environmental Assessment is available from the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services.