Regional
(2010-06-17)
Listen Now:
DE BEQUE, CO
(KUNC) -
Just say the word "wolf" here in the West, and you're bound to evoke all sorts of emotional responses. Take hunter Sean Andrews and wolf-advocate Steve Bolanger speaking outside a federal courthouse in Missoula, Montana this week, where a judge is considering a lawsuit that seeks to put the wolf back on the Endangered Species list in the northern Rockies.
null
"Without management and control, the wolves will decimate our ungulate populations," Andrews says, "They've already done so in many of these areas that have a high population of wolves."
Bolanger counters, "The wolf needs to be treated just like any other predator, or any other big game animal."
Wolves create similar passion two states to the south in Colorado, where there isn't even a known population. The predators were eradicated here more than 70 years ago. But reports of sightings in the northwest corner of the state are on the rise. Biologists are trying to determine whether they're credible. Most of the research is centering on the High Lonesome Ranch, where a privately-funded scientist believes the predators may be making a come back.
A Cautious Approach
Depending on who you talk to, wolves have been seen in northwest Colorado for several years. But few claims have been verified, until last year when a collared wolf from Yellowstone was found dead near the town of Meeker. Like every corner of the West, wolves are an ultra-sensitive issue here.
That's why conservation biologist Cristina Eisenberg is trying to be extra cautious with her research, and until now hasn't done much talking to reporters.
"People have such strong reactions to wolves," she says. "They either love them or they hate them, and that makes all of this very challenging."
All of "this" started last summer, when Eisenberg was hired by this ranch's conservation-minded owner, Paul Vahldiek. He wanted to know why his aspen forests were in such bad shape. Some of his workers were also reporting signs of wolves and sightings on this 300 square mile ranch that mingles with public land.
But Eisenberg didn't believe it until she came from her home in the wolf country of Montana, and hiked along an overgrown, old wagon trail.
"This is it, actually, this is where we had our first a ha moment,'" she says, revisiting the site.
Eisenberg saw numerous wolf scats - their waste, full of hair and way bigger than a coyote's. A few weeks later, she says she saw a wolf herself.
"It was unmistakably a wolf," Eisenberg says, "What I don't know is whether it was a hybrid animal, somebody's pet that got away, or a wolf that dispersed from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, so I'm looking into that with DNA testing."
A "Paradigm Shift" in Conservation Biology
While she awaits the results from a lab that specializes in wolf DNA at UCLA, a vigorous five year study has begun on this ranch. Eisenberg also officially works for Oregon State University, so she comes to the High Lonesome every so often to oversee her team of researchers.
They're focusing on dead or dying aspen groves. They've set up several enclosures with fences and gates, to prevent elk from grazing. Because predators are few and far between, Eisenberg suspects the elk are getting lazy, returning over and over to forests like these. They treat them like a buffet table, gorging away at the young saplings.
"They act like they're livestock, domestic cows, and when you put wolves back in the system, the elk behavior completely changes, they have to become a lot more weary to stay alive," she says.
This is what preliminary research to the north in and around Yellowstone National Park is showing. Eisenberg is involved with some of it. Biologists there believe the reintroduction of wolves has actually helped the ecosystem. Elk are on the move, so not as many aspens are killed, and in turn, songbirds are flourishing because the trees grow up and provide habitat.
"It's a very exciting time to be a scientist, because it feels like you're on this cresting wave, this big paradigm shift," Eisenberg says.
It used to be that scientists and in turn wildlife managers focused on individual species, and their health, rather than the entire chain, says Eisenberg. This is changing.
"Wolves touch everything in an ecosystem. You think about the web of life, it's like a spider web where everything is interconnected, and so you tug on one of those threads and everything else feels it.
Results Still Pending
Still, a lot more research has to be done. And whether or not Eisenberg's opinions will be embraced by state wildlife managers or cattle-dependent ranchers in this area remains to be seen. Just as it remains to be seen whether there are even wolves re-colonizing this part of northwest Colorado. Eisenberg has a hunch they might be, which could be further backed up as she walks back towards a group of research buildings.
"Wow, that's convenient," says Arian Hample, Eisenberg's top research assistant.
"That looks like a wolf scat," Eisenberg says, as Hample scoops it up in his gloved hands and puts it in a Zip Loc bag.
This too is bound for the UCLA lab. Hample and Eisenberg figure it's about a week old, maybe up to a month.
Meanwhile, the genetic results of the first samples sent to UCLA several months ago still aren't back yet. Eisenberg says that's because it takes a long time to conclusively determine first whether it is a wolf, and second, where it came from.
"So in other words, if this particular scat turns out to test positive for wolf, but if it's genetic structure is linked to a wolf population from Minnesota, we'll know that this is somebody's pet wolf that got away," she says.
And given the potential implications - both ecological and political - Eisenberg says it's worth the wait. The test results should be released to the public any day now.
© Copyright 2012, KUNC
