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Putting up fladry in Big Wood River, ID
Photo Credit: Suzanne Stone

Learn more about the nonlethal methods to protect livestock from wolves utilized on the Big Wood River Project

LIVESTOCK AND WOLVES: PREVENTING CONFLICT WITH FLADRY

For hundreds of years, ranchers have had to address issues of protecting their livestock from natural predators, sometimes forced to do so in a lethal manner. When wolves prey upon livestock, the social tolerance for the number of depredations and the presence of these animals decreases.

Fladry, a line mounted along the top of a fence from which strips of fabric or some other material are suspended have been used to deter wolves from traversing a fence-line for centuries. First developed and used by hunters in Eastern Europe to funnel wolves into an area, once caught in the fladry trap wolves were reluctant to cross the barrier and were shot. Currently, fladry is used to confine wolf movements to certain areas and constrain their depredations on livestock through creation of barriers that wolves don’t like to cross or otherwise impair their predation ability.

A prevalent societal goal across the West is to protect valuable livestock from carnivores, reducing depredation losses, creating an eco-system where both domestic and wild animals can co-exist. Fladry can play a role among a suite of preventive measures available and offers a cost-effective mitigation tool for the problem of wolf predation on livestock on a local scale.

OUTFITTERS BACK OFF CALL FOR MORE WOLF TURF

Federal Agency, wolf protest participants at odds over 'facts.'
by CORY HATCH, Jackson Hole News & Guide

Roughly 200 outfitters, ranchers and sportsmen turned out on Center Street in Jackson to speak out against wolves, a predator they say is ruining the state’s elk population and threatening livestock.

“We’re here to support our heritage,” said Taylor, one of the event organizers and owner of Gros Ventre Wilderness Outfitters. “The wolf has no place on the endangered species list. They back us into a corner and, by God, we’re ready to fight.”

Mike Jimenez, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and Wyoming wolf recovery coordinator who attended the rally, said outfitters are probably correct that wolves have had an impact on some segments of the local elk population. But some comments made at Saturday’s event distorted facts about wolves, he said.

Read the whole story HERE

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