PRESS RELEASE: Nonlethal methods to prevent conflicts between livestock and wolves available through cooperative relationship between Howling For Wolves and USDA

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 12, 2019

CONTACT: Dr. Maureen Hackett, Howling For Wolves, 612.250.5915 or Leslie Rosedahl, respond@howlingforwolves.org 651.353.1818

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Nonlethal methods to prevent conflicts between livestock and wolves available through cooperative relationship between Howling For Wolves and USDA

St. Paul, Minn.— In an effort to reduce the number of wolf conflicts with livestock and the number of wolves killed in response, Howling For Wolves has recently partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Wildlife Services (WS) for a cooperative wildlife damage management partnership program in the state of Minnesota.

Dr. Maureen Hackett, founder and president of Howling For Wolves, a Minnesota-based wolf advocacy organization, said: “While livestock losses from wolf predation are relatively low in Minnesota, reducing the losses of livestock (and wolves) is critical to helping Minnesota’s farmers, wolves, and communities co-exist and thrive.”

Howling For Wolves has provided one mile of fladry which will be used in 2019 and 2020 in an attempt to reduce conflicts with wolves at a limited number of sites in Minnesota. Fladry is a line of brightly colored flags hung from a rope which may be electrified and when deployed serves as a barrier to deter predator access to areas used by livestock. Because wolves are often wary of new items in their environment, the use of such barriers may prevent livestock losses to wolves and serve as a nonlethal method to reduce wolf/livestock conflicts. Fladry has been an increasingly popular tool to deter wolves from vulnerable livestock in areas where its use is feasible and practical.

Under this cooperative effort, WS and Howling For Wolves will be working with a limited number of livestock producers in MN who agree to deploy fladry as an alternative to using lethal control methods to prevent livestock predation by wolves. Howling For Wolves will provide the fladry and WS will provide the stakes and solar powered energizers for electrifying the fladry at the selected sites. The effectiveness of the fladry as a wolf deterrent will be monitored and evaluated where deployed.

Under federal Endangered Species Act protections, wolves in Minnesota and the Great Lakes region may not be harmed or killed without federal authorization. In Minnesota, wolves may be euthanized by government employees when livestock predation by wolves has been verified. In 2017, there were 89 verified wolf complaints at 76 sites in MN. In response, 199 wolves were removed by WS at those sites as part of an integrated wolf damage management program. Existing state funds are available to compensate farmers for livestock killed by wolves, provided the incident is reported and verified.

Other nonlethal prevention methods recommended to reduce wolf/livestock conflicts include alarms or scare devices, livestock protection animals, reducing attractants such as carcasses, and human presence.

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Howling For Wolves educates the public about the wild wolf to foster tolerance and to ensure the wolf’s long-term survival. Howling For Wolves opposes recreational wolf hunting and trapping and all wildlife snaring. We advocate for nonlethal prevention methods that reduce wolf-livestock conflicts and support current federal protections for the wolf. www.HowlingForWolves.org.

The mission of USDA APHIS Wildlife Services (WS) is to provide Federal leadership and expertise to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist. WS conducts program delivery, research, and other activities through its Regional and State Offices, the National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) and its Field Stations, as well as through its National Programs.