The answer is nuanced and differs based on what each state hopes to achieve by having wolves living within the state’s borders. Each state in the western United States has either developed its own map for success or seems to be grappling with how to address a way forward now. In some cases, the state and federal protections of Mexican and gray wolves have created additional challenges, and, in others, the challenges have come from activists or lack of policy adaptation.
Research regarding wolf-livestock interaction has improved in recent years and provides notable information that should be used to address the challenges of coexistence. One of the single largest challenges of wolf-livestock coexistence is livestock loss to depredation. New research shows direct calf losses to wolves equate to exponentially increased monetary losses for ranches. When a ranch experiences a 2 percent calf loss, it equates to a 4 percent loss in revenue, or about $5,000, but when a ranch experiences a 14 percent calf loss, it experiences a 34 percent loss in revenue, or about $42,000. There are also indirect losses to be taken into consideration – the calves a mother cow will never birth, weight never gained, illnesses never avoided, and more – when determining how to compensate the people charged with living next to apex predators.
You can learn more about the cost of coexistence, and proposed solutions to Mexican and gray wolf management, in The Real Cost of Coexistence: How Wolf Policies Are Failing Western Ranchers, a new paper available here.
Pam Lewison is a fourth-generation farmer in Eastern Washington, the Ag Research Director for the Washington Policy Center, and a Pacific Research Institute fellow.
