Coexisting with Large Carnivores: Orienting to the Problems

Tim W. Clark and Murray B. Rutherford

Large carnivores mean vastly different things to different people, and these meanings are often associated with intense feelings. A sampling of quotes from articles and newspapers published in the American West makes this plain. For some people, large carnivores are an outlet for strong resentment about the course of recent history in the West. For example, Cat Urbigkit, a sheepherder and coowner of the Sublette County Examiner (a small newspaper published in Pinedale, Wyoming), reported in 2002 that county commissioners in several Wyoming counties had "outlawed" grizzly bears and wolves. "Fed up with mandates from the federal government," they took action, "adopting resolutions prohibiting the presence, introduction or reintroduction of grizzly bears and wolves within the boundaries of their counties." They "drew a line in the sand," by proclaiming that they would no longer tolerate these kinds of actions from the federal government. As Todd Wilkinson, a well-known writer on natural resource issues in the West, observed, some people just "hate wolves. They hate grizzlies. They hate government (except federal subsidies). They hate public education. They hate any law which constrains their 'personal liberty.'" They spin elaborate, sometimes slanderous, yarns about conservationists plotting to "'lock Americans out of public lands'; allegedly scheming to lure the U.S. into a 'one-world government,' headquartered by the United Nations; and finally [driving] all rural people off the land." Wilkinson suggested that "hatred of wolves could be a symptom"—we might also call it a symbol—"of something else: fear of losing control over things in our lives, which inherently are beyond our control."

In dramatic contrast, the return of large carnivores has been a welcome event for other people, evidence that the region's ecology is "healing" and returning to the "way it should be." According to noted author Tom McNamee, putting wolves back into nature "may have saved the ecosystem from ruin." Similarly, Robert Ferris of Defenders of Wildlife observed, "Restoration of these animals represents a major step in correcting earlier errors in public policy and in repairing ecological imbalances." And Greg Hanscom in High Country News said, "Restore the top predator and you restore the entire ecosystem."

These contrasting quotes make two things very clear. First, carnivores symbolize many other issues, and second, the differences among these "meanings" pose a serious practical management challenge. Finding common ground is indeed an uphill task.

Nowhere is the conflict over meaning and management sharper than in the area of the West on which this book focuses—western Wyoming south of Yellowstone National Park, including the southern part of what is commonly recognized as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Greater Yellowstone is one of the largest and most important systems of protected areas in the United States and one of the more significant regions for conservation in the world. As figure 1.1 shows, the area covered by this book encompasses about 22,000 square miles and includes all of Bridger-Teton National Forest, other federal and state lands, and private lands. The overall boundaries are not rigidly defined, and large carnivores range widely in and out, but in recent years human-carnivore conflicts seem to be clustered in this area (see figure 1.1). This is the stage on which a public policy play is currently being acted out, and it can serve as a field laboratory for us to learn how to secure a future for large carnivores in a dynamic human context.

The difficulty of coexisting with large carnivores is less about the carnivores than it is about us and our views. The basic problem is how we go about interacting with one another over troubling public issues and collectively deciding how we want to live. We can manage large carnivores. However, it is much more challenging to manage ourselves in cooperative ways that will give large carnivores more room than they presently have.

Grizzlies, wolves, and mountain lions were eliminated or reduced to very low numbers in most of Greater Yellowstone decades ago. But in recent years many Westerners, along with others nationwide, have called for the restoration of these animals. This has led to more active conservation, restoration, and reintroduction programs. Since the early 1990s, grizzly bears and wolves have moved south from Yellowstone country into western Wyoming, and the number of mountain lions may also have increased. This has led to conflicts among people about what to do with their new and sometimes unwanted neighbors, which occasionally eat sheep and cattle in addition to deer and elk. The intense feelings that people have about carnivores, the return of these animals to areas from which they have long been absent, and the new conflicts occurring among people and between carnivores and people have combined to make management of large carnivores a complex and messy political problem. It can also be highly personal and costly for some of the participants. Managers, ranchers, and environmentalists have occasionally been vilified or glorified in the media. They too have become political symbols.

So what are the real issues behind the symbolism? Can anything be done to change these interactions so that people and wildlife can live in sustainable coexistence with one another? Grizzly researcher Steve Primm, with the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, says the answer is decidedly "yes!" Steve is working to develop a community-based grizzly management process near Ennis, Montana, and is building food storage poles in backcountry campsites south of Yellowstone. He believes that we must deal with the real bears and the real problems they sometimes cause, while recognizing at the same time that these bears are highly symbolic (Primm elaborates on these views in chapters 4 and 6). Wildlife biologist Timm Kaminski also says "yes!" Now with the Mountain Livestock Cooperative, Timm is working to show people who want to protect bears, wolves, and mountain lions, and those who earn a living from the land, that people can and do solve difficult carnivore management problems by learning from each other. These two experienced field workers are among...