The 17th year of the Wood River Wolf Project extended our record-breaking success with zero confirmed losses and only two possible sheep losses attributed to wolves among 18,000 sheep present during the summer grazing season. This achievement led to no wolves being culled by wildlife management agencies. Our project area is among the most difficult places to implement nonlethal methods such as livestock guardian dogs, Foxlights, sound alarms, and closely monitoring wolf activity. Our record of success is a testament to the coexistence of wolves and livestock operations, even in challenging landscapes like ours in Blaine County, Idaho.
Our success story has resonated across borders, reaching other states and European countries grappling with increasing livestock-wolf conflicts. Our team finished our 2024 field season by sharing our model across rural Colorado communities, the Pathways Europe Wildlife Conference in Spain, and the International Wildlife Coexistence Conference in Italy. We owe our accomplishments to you, our supporters. Your generosity fuels our peacekeeping work in the Valley between livestock and wildlife.
As we gear up for the next year's field season, we rely on your continued support. Every donation is valuable, contributing to our 2025 field season and ensuring we can carry on with this important mission. We cannot do this work without you, and every dollar helps! Click to donate to the Wood River Wolf Project , or see the mailing options below.
STUDENTS GAIN LIFE SKILLS AND LEARN ABOUT PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE
The Wood River Wolf Project pilot camera and tracking educational program began in 2021 and included students from the Sage School, the Community School and Hemingway STEAM School.
Students and their parents were so excited about the results, that the program continued this year.
During the month of May, Logan Miller, field supervisor for the Wolf Project and Francie St. Onge of Sun Valley Trekking and a member of the Wolf Project Steering committee, worked weekly with 10th and 11th graders from the Sage School to teach them about tracking wildlife, placing cameras in strategic locations, operating the cameras and ways to protect both livestock and wolves using nonlethal deterrents to achieve peaceful coexistence.
“It’s a perfect opportunity for students to learn life skills and gain hands-on experience that they might use for future career opportunities,” Francie said. “It also teaches students about the importance of supporting local nonprofits and community service. It’s a win-win project.”
Great new learning opportunity
Sawtooth Science Institute and BSU are teaming up to offer a great learning opportunity, Coexisting with Idaho Wildlife on June 16 and June 17, 2022. Credit is available For all the details and to enroll, here is the link:
https://www.boisestate.edu/k12pd/sawtooth-science-institute-courses/
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Successful Governor’s Grant for the. Wood River Wolf Project
On April 7, 2022, the Wood River Wolf Project was awarded a grant for $34,670 from the Idaho Governor's Office of Species Conservation as part of Idaho's Wolf Depredation Prevention Program. "I am thrilled that the Governor's Office has awarded this grant which was significantly higher than 2021", stated Sarah Michael, Committee Chair of the Wood River Wolf Project. "These funds will ensure that the Wood River Wolf Project will have the field staff and tools that we need to assist sheepherders in the use of nonlethal methods to prevent wolf/ livestock predation." 12,000-15,000 sheep graze on public lands in Blaine County in the summer. By keeping wolves away from them, both the sheep and wolves are safe.
The major part of the grant will be used to fund Logan Miller, our 2022 Field Manager. Logan will be back for his third season, and we credit his
relationship-building skills with sheepherders for much of their acceptance of nonlethal deterrents. He has a B.S. in Agricultural Sustainability and many years of experience in wolf conservation.
Also, we use new equipment and technology - protected and light collars for the LGD and flashing ear tags for sheep.
The grant from the Governor's Office of Species Conservation are federal funds that states are eligible for to fund nonlethal deterrent efforts to reduce wolf and livestock conflicts. The Wood River Wolf Project in Blaine County is Idaho's oldest and most successful wolf existence program, going on our15 summer field season. "We appreciate the support the Governor's Office has provided the Wood River Wolf Project over the years", Michael stated.
A journey through the Idaho backcountry to promote the coexistence of wolves and livestock
“A Wood River Valley non-profit is working to extend its outreach and promote the coexistence of livestock and wolves in their area. Their work continues to be conducted while legislation is being passed in Idaho to kill the majority of the state’s wolves…"
Idaho ranchers torn between hunting and deterrents for gray wolves harming their livestock
PBS highlighted Idaho ranchers who want wolves out of Idaho and those of us involved with the Wood River Wolf Project (Brian Bean and Kurt Holtzen, Lava Lake Land & Livestock) who have worked in coexistence with wolves for 14 years.
What One Advocate Says About A New Law That Could Kill 90% Of Idaho Wolves
Suzanne Stone, Co-founder of the Wood River Wolf Project, was featured on Boise State Public Radio discussing new Idaho legislation. Listen here.
No-Kill Coexistence Project Continues As Idaho Expands Wolf Hunting And Trapping
Logan Miller, our field manager, was recently featured on Boise State Public Radio, talking about the work he and the Wood River Wolf Project do.
Wood River Wolf Project to Share Season Highlights
Members of the Wood River Wolf Project hosted a virtual wrap-up for the 13th season of the project. Project members shared the project’s history, recent updates, the challenges and successes of the 13th season, plans for future coexistence efforts and training, and how residents can help.
Stories from the range: Cattle rancher Merrill Beyeler recounts wolf reintroduction, changing practices
Cattle farmer and former state representative Merrill Beyeler believes the reintroduction of wolves to Idaho has had a positive impact on Idaho’s ecosystem. However, Beleyer also points to the need for some wolf management to protect livestock and compensation for animals lost to wolves.
‘Retribution politics’: Inside Idaho’s crackdown on wolves
After wolves were delisted as an endangered species, wolf management shifted to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Lethal methods are still favored in Idaho today due to government agencies’ unwillingness to invest in nonlethal methods and lethal methods producing a more tangible “fix” to conflicts with wolves.
Idaho’s wild wolves: A look back at the history of wolf reintroduction
Wolves were once common in Idaho, but nearly all wolves in the lower 48 states were wiped out by the end of the Great Depression. Wolves were reintroduced to central Idaho in the 1990s, sparking a surge in wolf populations and the need for nonlethal deterrent methods to protect livestock.
A war on wolves
Wood River Wolf Project co-founder Suzanne Stone reflects on starting the project with the odds stacked against them. Stone said only 30 sheep were killed by wolves in Blaine County since the project’s inception, compared to 300 sheep killed in a neighboring district that did not employ nonlethal methods.
Wolf Project begins 13th season
The Wood River Wolf Project embarked on its 13th summer of providing ranchers with nonlethal predator deterrents. The project’s steering committee and the Lava Lake Institute for Science & Conservation announced that Logan Miller will join the team as field manager and bring in knowledge of the surrounding area and sustainability.
Wood River Wolf Project has successful season
Herders reported only one incident of wolf depredation and seven or eight sheep killed during the summer season. No wolves were killed by the federal wildlife services agency this season.
Data from the Wood River Wolf Project is published in the Journal of Mammalogy
We are excited to announce that a paper documenting the first seven years of the Wood River Wolf Project was just published in the Journal of Mammalogy! It appears in a special edition of the Journal on the Lethal Control of Predators. See the article below.
Adaptive use of nonlethal strategies for minimizing wolf–sheep conflict in Idaho
Suzanne A. Stone; Stewart W. Breck; Jesse Timberlake; Peter M. Haswell; Fernando Najera; Brian S. Bean; Daniel J. Thornhill
J Mammal (2017) 98 (1): 33-44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyw188
Published: 02 February 2017
Abstract
Worldwide, native predators are killed to protect livestock, an action that can undermine wildlife conservation efforts and create conflicts among stakeholders. An ongoing example is occurring in the western United States, where wolves (Canis lupus) were eradicated by the 1930s but are again present in parts of their historic range. While livestock losses to wolves represent a small fraction of overall livestock mortality, the response to these depredations has resulted in widespread conflicts including significant efforts at lethal wolf control to reduce impacts on livestock producers, especially those with large-scale grazing operations on public lands. A variety of nonlethal methods have proven effective in reducing livestock losses to wolves in small-scale operations but in large-scale, open-range grazing operations, nonlethal management strategies are often presumed ineffective or infeasible. To demonstrate that nonlethal techniques can be effective at large scales, we report a 7-year case study where we strategically applied nonlethal predator deterrents and animal husbandry techniques on an adaptive basis (i.e., based on terrain, proximity to den or rendezvous sites, avoiding overexposure to techniques such as certain lights or sound devices that could result in wolves losing their fear of that device, etc.) to protect sheep (Ovis aries) and wolves on public grazing lands in Idaho. We collected data on sheep depredation mortalities in the protected demonstration study area and compared these data to an adjacent wolf-occupied area where sheep were grazed without the added nonlethal protection measures. Over the 7-year period, sheep depredation losses to wolves were 3.5 times higher in the Nonprotected Area (NPA) than in the Protected Area (PA). Furthermore, no wolves were lethally controlled within the PA and sheep depredation losses to wolves were just 0.02% of the total number of sheep present, the lowest loss rate among sheep-grazing areas in wolf range statewide, whereas wolves were lethally controlled in the NPA. Our demonstration project provides evidence that proactive use of a variety of nonlethal techniques applied conditionally can help reduce depredation on large open-range operations.
Canis lupus, coexistence, human–wildlife conflict, livestock damage prevention, predator
For the full article, follow this link: https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/doi/10.1093/jmammal/gyw188/2977254/Adaptive-use-of-nonlethal-strategies-for
Washington Wolf Cull Won't Save Livestock: Study
IDFG Releases 2015 Wolf Monitoring Progress Report
Idaho Mountain Express: Lava Lake Institute takes lead on wolf project
Since 2008, the Wood River Wolf Project has used nonlethal predator deterrents to maintain a much lower rate of depredation on sheep in the Big Wood River drainage than occurs elsewhere, as well as to keep wolves alive.
The project had been led since its inception by the nonprofit group Defenders of Wildlife, and particularly by the group’s Northern Rockies representative, Suzanne Stone. But Shawn Cantrell, Northwest program director with the organization, said Defenders decided that after seven years of leadership, it was time to pass that role to a local entity.