Meet "Jewel", Phantom Hill Wolf pack member B445
Photos and account copyright Lynne Stone 2009   

Friends,

Over a week ago I was hiking north of Ketchum, when a young Phantom Hill Pack wolf trotted into view. From her appearance I knew she was B445, the most recently collared Phantom wolf. When my dog, Bo, noticed the wolf, he bounded after her, but when I called Bo back, the wolf stopped and turned around and continued to watch us with curiosity. 

I had observed from afar, a few weeks before, when B445 was caught by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and collared. I watched through a spotting scope as she woke up from being drugged, and staggered toward the rest of her pack

B445 is often the nannie wolf to her younger brothers and sisters that make up this year's pups. Jewel stepped into the role after Judith (B326) strayed from the pack and went on her adventure earlier this year. At least three pups have been seen though there are probably more. I heard them howling recently at night and it sounded like three to four pups howling in response to the rest of the pack.

B445 was still shedding out her thick winter coat of fur when I saw her close-up. Now that weeks of rain (unusual for central Idaho!) has stopped, the weather is finally warm, and B445's fur will soon be sleek.

During my recent eye-to-eye encounter with B445, I was never for a moment afraid. What I observed, was that B445 was very curious of us (my dog and self), as we were intruders into her pack's territory. I thought of B445's older sister, B326 - Judith, and how that this younger wolf was certainly a jewel. Her beautiful silky movements, her intellegent, inquisitive amber eyes, "Jewel" seems to fit her.

© Lynne Stone 

(All Idaho wolves when caught and radio-collared are given a number with the letter B preceding it.)

Livestock/wolf conflict on July 4

This past weekend, on July 4, an ewe sheep was killed near the Phantom Hill wolf pups on public land.  Wildlife managers are blaming the Phantoms for the kill.

The predation of this sheep could have been prevented. The band of sheep to which the ewe belonged was grazed right over top of the Phantom Hill wolf pups on a ridge immeditely above where the pups were residing within a stand of aspen. 

Wolf predation that takes place when grazing sheep on public land is not the fault of the wolves, in almost every instance it is a consequence of poor public land livestock management.       

Preventing livestock/wolf conflict

You can do something to prevent livestock/wolf conflict in the future.  Public land managers can and should take steps to prevent conflict like this from occuring again, but they need to know that this is what the public wants.  Here are a few solutions that WWP is working on to ensure the well-being of central Idaho wolves.  You can help.  

1. If sheep are to graze public lands that belong to all of us for a mere fraction (27 cents per sheep/month - lambs are free) of what it costs to graze on private pasture, then it is entirely reasonable for the public to insist that land managers exercize their authority to ensure the prevention of livestock/wolf conflict. 

Public land managers can write preventative provisions right into the terms & conditions of a permit to use public lands, similar to how a landlord might set a condition that a tenet keep the yard maintained should a tenet wish to rent a property. 

Here are a few suggestions for public land managers to consider :

• Livestock will not be trailed or grazed within 2 miles of known wolf pack's rendezvous sites, den sites, or known places where wolves regularly gather
  
• Permittees will maintain an adequate number of guard dogs and herders to reasonably prevent conflict from occurring
  
• Permittees will direct herders to bed down sheep and deploy fladry, sound-boxes and/or other devices known to deter wolves from approaching sheep
• Permittees will direct herders to sleep near the flock of sheep to ensure herders are aware should conflict arise, and able to do something about it
  

It may seem hard to believe, but these simple wolf-saving management conditions are not being included on leases to use our public land.

2. Western Watersheds Project has partnered with the Western Wolf Coalition to legally challenge the delisting of Northern Rocky Mountain wolves.  We believe that it is entirely innappropriate, and legally indefensible, for the federal government to hand management of wolves over to state land managers who get their political orders, and have crafted their state management plans, in the interest of visceral and intolerant public land ranchers rather than in the interest of the public at large.  

3. WWP is considering litigating several sheep grazing decisions on public lands in central Idaho.  Grazing sheep in central Idaho is environmentally indefensible for many reasons including conflicts with wolves, negative impacts to native vegetation that wildlife use, the spread of fatal disease from domestic to bighorn sheep, the spread of weeds, and the risk of transmission of Q Fever to humans.  When WWP is succesful at reducing or eliminating public land domestic sheep grazing for private profit on public lands, wolves will enjoy a much wider home range without the threat of conflict caused by domestic livestock.

4.  Ultimately, Western Watersheds Project works to help end public lands ranching in the West, a commercial public land-use exclusively enjoyed by a few politically priveleged people and corporations who have succesfully maintained a cowboy myth.  Public lands ranching is the largest contributor to the imperilment of native wildlife and plantlife in the country (on par with mining and logging combined), the largest source of weed spread and water pollution in the west, the largest cause of landscape desertification and it is a land use that has ceased to contribute any significant economic or ecological justification in the 21st Century.

Ending public lands ranching will end government justifications to kill wolves and other native predators in the American West.    

  (click for wider photo)
Moon over the Smoky Mountains, Soldier Mountain Pack territory, central Idaho.  © Brian Ertz, WWP

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Banner: Phantom Hill wolf howls in the sagebrush at dawn
photo © Natalie Ertz 2009