Washakie Pack "control" ordered
This was the pack Jimenez collared and got into trouble for
June 5, 2004
This from the latest "Grey wolf recovery progress report" of the US Fish and Wildlife Service:
Another calf was killed by the Washakie pack on private property, north of Dubois, WY on the 1st. WS couldn’t respond right away so the Service investigated and confirmed the depredation. We will coordinate initiating lethal control with WS. WS and/or FWS will attempt to remove 3 wolves by trapping, or ground or aerial shooting.
It's hard to know how to write this story. One take could be "there ain't no justice in Wyoming."
The Washakie Pack is a longstanding pack the inhabits the Dunoir and Horse Creek area, SE of Yellowstone and sometimes ranges beyond. I have probably written about 15 stories about the pack over the years. I also co-authored a hiking guide into the area.
The problem is this. The country they inhabit has every large predator in North America save polar bears and jaguars. Despite this, some outfits try to raise cattle here.
Every year the Washakie Pack kills a few calves or cows and a few ranch dogs. Every year Ed Bangs issues a control order or gives a rancher (or his agent) a permit to shoot a wolf. They never seem to be able to shot one, however, or perhaps don't really want to.
The federal agents are treated with hostility. One won't let them cross his land to investigate depredations on another's land. That makes it hard to find out whether a cow was killed by a grizzly, black bear, cougar, wolverine, or wolf. By the time Wildlife Services gets there it is often hard to tell what happened.
Sometimes a Washakie wolf is finally shot by the government, but it is hard because the Washakie Pack is difficult to radio collar. They hear aircraft and they quickly leave the small meadows and step into the timber. The pack usually wears just one or two collars.
The pack does occasionally roam, however, and last spring they were spotted many miles to the NE of their usual range, in rough, but open country. USFWS wolf manager for Wyoming Mike Jimenez and pilot Wes Livingston darted and collared 5 of the pack, and the rest is history. . . Jimenez moved the tranquilized Washakie wolves off the gravel road to the shade to collar and process the wolves and a ranch hand happened by, and decided after talking to local anti-feds in Park Country that Jimenez was really planting rather than collaring wolves. Jimenez may or may not have been on private property at the time.
A few days latter the wolves, now broadcasting their positions loudly were miles away back in the DuNoir, and the expert wolf team was in legal trouble.
How ironic that these very radio collars may now be used to track down and kill part of the pack for another bunch of likely unpleasant ranchers.* They have that reputation in the DuNoir.
The end result may be that Jimenez is harassed out of his career and a number of the wolf pack he collared after years of trying are dead for a the sake of a few cattle in country that would be better left for the grizzlies, elk, moose, cougar, bighorn, wolves, deer, antelope, and coyotes.
The Washakie Pack will continue on, but justice will have been ignored.
* Some of the ranches are owned and operated by the same person, here and throughout the West. Others in the area are (increasingly) owned by someone and managed by someone else. This distinction between owner (person with the title) and ranch manger is an important one, and one most of the media cannot seem to comprehend, or, more likely, chooses not to in an effort portray a fictitious West, of owner-operators, fiercely independent, rugged individuals.
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Copyright ©2004 Ralph Maughan