westcliffe01
Veteran Member
Gerold, that is why I specifically said wolves outside Yellowstone. That is a very large national park, and the wolf is not the top predator. And there are certainly no cattle or other ranchers living in it. But that does not apply to Montana or Wyoming, for example. Cattle ranching is a hard life, is not very profitable (anymore in the global economy) and requires large amounts of capital. If one sells a large cattle ranch today to a developer, it is impossible to restore the land afterwards. The first thing the developer does is sell the water rights, and once you have done that, the land use will never be the same again. So in many ways, the large cattle operations out west are protectors of the land and keeping large tracts accessible for wildlife of all types.
That was actually working quite well until the wolves came along. Since wolves are again a part of the landscape, the financial losses to the ranchers have increased substantially. Anyone who thinks we don't need to care about the ranchers is making a big mistake. Every rancher that quits and takes the "easy money" by selling to a developer results in more subdivisions and more destruction of otherwise natural habitat. I think a lot of people simply don't understand the role that is played by ranchers in being stewards of the land and the preservation of habitat.
That was actually working quite well until the wolves came along. Since wolves are again a part of the landscape, the financial losses to the ranchers have increased substantially. Anyone who thinks we don't need to care about the ranchers is making a big mistake. Every rancher that quits and takes the "easy money" by selling to a developer results in more subdivisions and more destruction of otherwise natural habitat. I think a lot of people simply don't understand the role that is played by ranchers in being stewards of the land and the preservation of habitat.
I saw a program on PBS a while back on Yellowstone. Without wolves the elk overgrazed severely and destoyed all the willow and other wetland shrubs. Beaver and beaverponds disappeared and all the small game associated with them. When the wolves were reintroduced that controlled the elk. Beavers had their willows, birch, and other young trees. New ponds got built, small game moved in. In short controlling the elk had a ripple effect resulting in a much more diverse habitat for many animals. If you just want to consider only what is good for elk hunters then maybe wolves are bad, but trout fishing, small game and bird hunting all improved. Elk and wolves, deer and coyotes have all lived quite well without man needing to 'manage' one over the other...