In April, Congressman Dicks and the Defenders of Wildlife cosponsored a wolf conference at Olympic Park Institute on Lake Crescent. Wolf experts from around the West gathered to present information on the recent successful reintroductions in Yellowstone and central Idaho, and to respond to concerns of local residents. A tremendous amount was learned from the Yellowstone and Idaho reintroductions, and the general consensus among scientists present was that wolf reintroduction in the Olympics would be both biologically feasible and relatively inexpensive to carry out.
Reintroduction Process in N. Rockies & Yellowstone
Ed Bangs, who coordinated the northern Rockies reintroductions for the USFWS described the process. Family groups of wolves were trapped in Canada and Alaska, given top notch medical care, and transported to Yellowstone and central Idaho. In Idaho's Bitterroot wilderness, where the USFWS decided on a "hard release," the mostly adolescent wolves were immediately released. As predicted, they headed back north toward home, some as far as 60 or 70 miles from the release site, before making kills and settling into their new environment. In Yellowstone, where an effort was made to keep wolves within the park and surrounding wilderness areas, a "soft release" was chosen. Family groups of wolves were retained in one-acre acclimatization pens for ten weeks before they were released into the park. This was much more expensive than the Idaho release, but as a result Yellowstone wolves established territories relatively close to their release sites. The wolves are doing well in both locations: reproduction is better than expected, mortalities are lower, and depredation on livestock is minimal.
When a wolf does prey on livestock, as one did north of Yellowstone, federal animal control agents are called in to investigate. If a wolf kill is confirmed, the wolf is captured and relocated after the first occurrence, killed after the second. Bangs explained that it was critical to the success of the reintroduction effort that problem wolves be controlled. A special "experimental nonessential population" designation under the Endangered Species Act allows ranchers to shoot a wolf seen killing livestock. The designation also insures that no restrictions will be placed on private lands, and that restrictions on public lands are in effect only around active den sites.
Bangs explained the goal of the program was to establish viable populations of wolves and get the wolf delisted from the Endangered Sepcies list in the northern Rockies. "Ecologically, we're restoring an important element to a natural process," he said, "the process of predation that selects for strength in prey species."
Applying the Process To the Olympics
Mike Phillips, who coordinated the process for Yellowstone National Park, said that with the reproductive success they have experienced there, the recovery program is two years ahead of schedule and under budget. "Wolves are hard-wired to breed," he told the group. "I guarantee that you can recover wolves on the Olympic Peninsula."
Both Phillips and Bangs stressed that it would be unrealistic to expect that wolves would remain in Olympic National Park; they range widely. This has to be an effort to restore wolves to the Olympic ecosystem. Bangs added that Vancouver Island, which has a healthy wolf population, would be a logical place to seek donor wolves for an Olympic reintroduction.
Patty Happe, Olympic National Park's wildlife biologist, reported that elk populations in the park are stable at about 5,000 Roosevelt elk (4,000 in winter). Winter elk densities average eight to ten elk per square mile. Deer numbers in the park are less certain, but a preliminary study suggests that the number of deer on winter range in the west-side valleys is roughly the same as elk. Winter range for these prey animals is found below 2,000 feet elevation in the Olympics; most of it lies in the lower valleys of the Elwha, Bogachiel, Hoh, Quinault, and Queets rivers. Happe's preliminary assessment is that reintroduction of wolves to Olympic has the potential to be biologically viable.
Using available winter range figures for Olympic, and data compiled from the successful reintroductions in Yellowstone and central Idaho, Defenders of Wildlife biologist Dennis Hosack calculated that Olympic National Park supports about 200,000 acres of winter range, and could easily accommodate eight wolf packs (at seven to eight wolves in each pack) or 50 to 60 wolves. Interestingly, this is nearly identical to the findings of a 1976 National Science Foundation-funded study carried out by students at The Evergreen College Hosack conservatively placed the wolf "take" of deer and elk in the park at between four and fifteen percent of the total population per year.
A lingering question is prey density outside the park where increased hunting pressure and habitat changes have led to deer and elk declines. Research on those numbers will begin this fall as part of the congressionally funded study.
Concerns About Livestock: Compensation Plan
The study will also look at livestock numbers. Some area ranchers have voiced opposition to wolf reintroduction for fear of livestock losses due to wolf predation. But Hank Fischer of Defenders of Wildlife assured the participants that Defenders' compensation program currently in place in the Rockies would be put in place here. Under this program ranchers are compensated for the full value of any verifiable livestock killed by wolves. Defenders has paid out $30,000 to ranchers since the late 1980s. "We decided that the conservation community rather than ranchers should assume the economic cost of reintroduction," Fischer told the audience. A fund of $100,000 has been set up for the purpose; so far interest alone has supported compensation payments.
Dicks: Correcting An Historic Mistake
At the close of the conference, Congressman Dicks told the audience that his instinct is that reintroduction makes good sense. "We've learned it could be done;, he said. "Problems with cattle and sheep are manageable, and threats to humans are remote. Rarely in public life do you get a chance to correct a historic mistake. The government erred and we have a real opportunity to repair that wrong."
OPA urges conservationists to express their gratitude to Congressman Dicks for taking a leadership role in this issue, and to contact their representatives in Congress to support the reintroduction effort in Olympic National Park. With luck, the new millennium will see wolves restored to the Olympic ecosystem.
In June, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee approved $350,000 to begin a feasibility study aimed at returning gray wolves to Olympic National Park. The study, which will be underway in October, will gather biological and social information and access the overall feasibility of reintroducing wolves to the Olympics. Concurrent studies will look at elk, deer, cougar, and bear populations both within and outside Olympic National Park. The study will be a cooperative effort among a number of federal and state agencies, headed up by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt is appointing 12 independent scientists to review Olympic National Park's mountain goat data, including effects on vegetation, soils, and natural processes. Their findings will be presented to the Secretary in 18 months. The Environmental Impact Statement process will be suspended pending the review, and the public will have an opportunity to comment on the panel's findings.
The panel was appointed in response to Congressman Norm Dicks's challenge of the science underpinning the park's decision to remove non-native goats. Dicks believes the goats may be native and that they are not causing harm to alpine plant communities. Though he supports the scientific review, he calls it "a bit of a gamble."
OPA is confident that an unbiased panel of experts will concur with the more than fifteen years of research that supports the park's decision to remove non-native goats. We are just as confident that animal rights activists will reject the experts' findings. A spokesman for the Fund for Animals has already pronounced the study "a waste of money." More worrisome, Congressman Dicks has given no indication that he will abide by the results of this study, which could make the Fund's prediction a self-fulfulling prophecy. At best, the review will resolve scientific challenges to this issue, but we harbor no illusion that it will resolve the political controversy that surrounds it.