Book Excerpt
An Excerpt from “Wolfer: A Memoir”
By Carter Niemeyer, Guest Writer, 1-21-11
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For 26 years, Carter Niemeyer worked for USDA Animal Damage Control in Montana, where he was a trapper, a district supervisor, and the West’s wolf management specialist. He retired in 2006 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the federal wolf recovery coordinator for Idaho. The following is an excerpt from his new memoir Wolfer (BottleFly Press, 374 pages, $17.99). Niemeyer’s speaking engagements are listed on his website.
Once the shine of reintroduction had worn off, the troubles between people and wolves resumed, each living up to their worst traits.
After returning from a trip to Albuquerque, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was wrestling with problems related to Mexican wolves, there was more trouble in the Ninemile: this time on a ranch in Huson, Montana, owned by actress Andie MacDowell.
Everybody in the valley knew the actress as Rose Qualley. She and her husband, Paul, and their three children lived there. Like a lot of celebrities who decide to buy a ranch in a remote part of the West, they were taken aback when wild animals showed up in their yard. I drove to the Qualley place, taking federal wildlife agent Rick Branzell with me.
Paul Qualley answered the door wearing only a towel. He was healing from a groin sprain, an old football injury, he said. He sat on the couch and told us about their calf that was killed right behind the house. The calf had frostbitten feet that were recently wrapped by a veterinarian. It couldn’t walk, Paul said, so it was an easy target.
This wasn’t the Qualleys’ first run-in with wolves. They’d purchased a guard dog to protect their children from the large predators that lurked in that area – mountain lions and wolves in particular. Wolves killed the dog, however, eviscerating it next to the kids’ swing set. The wolves’ most recent victim, the Qualleys’ 300-pound calf, lay covered with a tarp. I walked around the site to figure out what happened. Then I skinned the carcass to determine the cause of death. The wolves, I decided, had attacked the calf as it stood next to a salt block, then dragged it about 50 feet, leaving a distinct blood trail. It had been bitten under its front legs and had a hole ripped open in its flank. Massive hemorrhaging killed it. The calf was full of slashes and bites, but the wolves didn’t eat it.
The wolves hadn’t gone far. One with a radio collar ran in front of my truck as I was driving away that day. It was close enough that I had to slam on my brakes. I grabbed my camera and snapped a photo when it paused to look at me before trotting into the trees. I’d started developing a pretty good sense of what might turn into a public relations disaster and was trying to think of all the evidence I’d need in order to justify moving or killing wolves – especially on a celebrity’s ranch.
Paul Qualley wasn’t interested in moving or killing the Ninemile wolves, but Rose Qualley dialed me up soon after my visit and complained that wolves were getting awfully thick around her ranch.
“I think you ought to move them,” the actress said.
“We can sure consider that,” I told her. “But it’s going to be up to the Fish and Wildlife Service.”
She didn’t push it and I waited for her to call and complain again, but she didn’t. It was a time when we were cautious about killing wolves. We didn’t know they’d be the prolific, resilient creatures they’ve turned out to be – even though we’d been warned. They were endangered, and we were trying to conserve every one of them. As much as we dared, we put it on ranchers to remove the things that would tempt a wolf – like a crippled calf standing out in the open or an uncovered boneyard – so that wolves wouldn’t get set up. So many times dead livestock – and dead wolves – can be prevented.
But the need fizzled. The Qualleys had a wolf problem, but they weren’t eager to do much about it. Defenders paid them for the dead calf, although they probably didn’t need the money. It was the last I heard about wolves causing trouble there, although I did learn that the Qualleys moved away not long after the wolf incident. It’s rough country out there.
Excerpted with permission from Wolfer: A Memoir by Carter Niemeyer (introduction by Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer), copyright © 2010 by BottleFly Press.
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Comments
The problem with the shoot shovel and shut up crowd is that they always forget the shut up part.
Check him out: http://www.ponderosasports.com/500gunsammo.htm
I know that is a silly analogy, but look what you are saying to rural people. As was pointed out in the excerpt from the book, the wolves killed the dog they bought to guard them. Would you not call the police if someone came in the night and mutilated your dog? Or stole from you?
Maybe I'm wasting my time - most folks that post here seem to have closed minds and refuse to see this issue from both sides.
Kevin Watson
http://www.savewesternwildlife.org
http://www.FOTNYEH.org
Perhaps if we did away with ADC/WS, and the ranchers were left to do it on their own dime, with all laws and guidelines followed esp the ones using public lands for grazing, then we could stop this "wasteful" spending. I know you were referring to Ken's post, but read the book. This is one very short passage from the book.
"But when it comes down to it, if wolves are really guilty of killing livestock-and that's a big if- there is little anyone can do to stop them, short of killing them."
"The problem, ultimately , is not with wolves, but with those who believe that the only good wolf is a dead one. Inept government investigations and outright lies about the nature of these animals result in bogus statistics and ultimately, more dead wolves."
"All we need are people who are brave enough to think for themselves, and cherish those things that are still truly wild."
Give "Wolfer" a try. You might enjoy it.
I will put the book on my list & see if I can find it somewhere.... A book you should read is Cat Urbigkit "Yellowstone Wolves" the author is one of the individuals that sued the government for introducing the non-native wolves from Canada. According to the book it’s a slam dunk fact that it was illegal.
I was one of the many hunters in favor of wolves in Northern Wisconsin! But, when they start showing up in my back yard eating neighbors pets 35 minutes from Greenbay I started thinking that maybe they should start being controlled. Last year again they set records for dead, calves, dogs, horses, goats, etc. This high maintenance animal is also the biggest cause of mortality on the Clam Lake Elk herd here in Wisconsin....yes I do support that herd.
I'm not a predator hater Tom .... I recognize that you are a hunter hater & are using this animal as a tool to further your anti-hunting agenda. Most true Wolf hugger’s recognize the limits of the wolf & are also calling for management!
http://www.wolf.org/wolves/news/live_news_detail.asp?id=5894
http://www.wolf.org/wolves/news/live_news_detail.asp?id=5895
http://www.wolf.org/wolves/news/live_news_detail.asp?id=5896
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado ruled that the wolves can Stay! They overturned the 1997 ruling by judge Downes to remove the wolves!
As per you 3sites sited, I've read them and have no real disagreement with any of them, but I've said that before
The biggest difference between the two was "average" size, size of the head, coloration, and the local wolves did not have the "pack" mentality that the illegal wolves have. We have now lost any resemblence CL irremotus because of anti-hunters like Tom Page!
Elusive targetFebruary 17, 2010
Rumors of 150-pound wolves abound in the Idaho Panhandle, but most of the wolves taken by hunters are much smaller.
Adult females averaged 86 pounds, according to Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials, who also included the weights of wolves struck by vehicles in the survey. For adult males, 101 pounds was the average.
The exception was a 130-pound adult male killed in Boundary County that was weighed after its stomach had been removed.
It’s not surprising that wolf weights get exaggerated, said Jim Hayden, Fish and Game’s regional wildlife manager in Coeur d’Alene.
“They look huge,” he said. “They’ve got long legs, big heads and lots of fur.”
Wolves have 2- to 4-inch-long guard hairs around their necks, reinforcing the impression of a bulky body, said Jason Husseman, a Fish and Game wolf biologist in Salmon, Idaho. People see wolves, compare them to their dogs, and estimate that the wolves weigh 150 pounds.
“It’s a human tendency to overestimate. You see the same thing with bear sightings,” Husseman said.
In actuality, wolves have the lean, rangy build of distance runners – an adaption that helps them chase down prey, he said.
Some opponents of wolf reintroduction claim that the Canadian gray wolves released in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in the mid-1990s are a larger, more aggressive subspecies than native wolves, which were extinct by the 1930s. Biologists say there’s little or no evidence to back up that assertion.
“I’m curious that they throw out those numbers – that the Canadian wolves are 50 to 100 pounds bigger than the native Idaho wolves,” Husseman said. “I don’t know where those numbers come from.”
Hayden said the most authoritative research on wolf subspecies comes from a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service zoologist, Ronald Nowak, who studied 580 historic skulls of full-grown male wolves. Nowak concluded that North America had five subspecies of gray wolves. Two subspecies had historic ranges in Idaho – the Rocky Mountain wolf and the Great Plains wolf.
The Rocky Mountain subspecies outweighed the Great Plains wolf by about 20 pounds, Hayden said. But their ranges overlapped in the Idaho Panhandle, according to Nowak’s research.
“Realistically, there’s no difference between the subspecies. They interbreed,” Hayden said.
In addition, “we’ve got wolves that are walking here from Canada,” he said. “They’re the same species that would have been here in the past.”
In Wisconsin 17 of the Northern County Boards have passed resolutions that tell the DNR how they feel! It doesn’t hold much weight but it sure tells the story of what the locals think! The northern region (as defined by the DNR) encompasses 19 counties are where the majority of the wolves are. One of the things we see is that some of the resolutions are coming out of Forestry Committees & expel the myth that the wolf is needed to create this biological utopia the anti-hunters in wolf huggers clothing claim! Keep up your great posting! You’re pushing more and more people like me to fight for management! Thanks again Tom.....god help you with your hate problem!
Throughout history, hunting cultures revered and respected the predators who hunt to survive. Throughout history, healthy game populations coexisted with predation. Read your Lewis & Clark just for starters.
Plenty of today's hunters are able to appreciate that the wolf and other predators are not threats to either hunting or their way of life.
What's up with hunters who want all the game for themselves, can't bear the thought of some competition for prey, or reject longstanding predator-prey relationships?
Predator hater.....loven that. I have 10 coyotes in the garage. 6 skinned, 4 to go. I figure they shoot something like 300 a year in our area. EVERY YEAR. Funny how the coyote population never goes down. Lotta folks suppliment their incomes with a those 20 dollar coyotes. Lotta work for a few bucks, but it helps some folks out, and the best part is....its renewable to boot! I wonder if the wolves will be the same? Coyotes starting to rub now, pelts going bad. Have to quit shooting and go fishing, lotta ice now. If we could get a little local control on these wolves, there would be no wolf problem, and yet we would still have wolves.
This is why real names should be part of the revamped comment policy. If you can't say it up front over your name, then STFU.
Funny thing mikey, I think the worse name I ever called one of you is wolf hugger.....(no, I don't really believe you hug wolves, although it would be nice to snuggle up to a wolf rug in the winter, for sure)
Thats what I don't get about you people. Have any of you ever lived? Lets say you had a crappy job and still did it because you had to support a family? Would you quit because it was a crappy job? Think about these ranchers. You think ranching is an easy job, think again. No holidays, unless it costs you money to pay someone to take care of things. Ya gotta be there all the time, or things go to heck. No sick days, cause the work is still there, and you gotta pay for someone to do it for you again. Again, I am talking about a REAL ranch or farm operation. Not the rich california who moves up and pretends to ranch as a tax write off or a hobby.
Then I look at some of these govt. jobs. Forest Ranger. How many days does he work? How many comp days does he get? Vacation? Sick days? I needed to talk to a fella at a wildlife refuge last fall. I had to go down there five times because (1.) he was on vacation for a week (2.) he took a comp day, whatever that is) (3.) he was sick for a week (ok, was he?) (4.) another set of comp days, secretary told me he would be gone for 3 days (5.) I finally set up an appointment just to make sure he was gonna be in. Forest rangers are worse, believe me.
Now wonder why people like me have little use for govt. employees or welfare recipients....(I do have a friend on welfare....29 years on the job and hurt his back. But he wants to go back to work and can't. Had surgery and all that. Thats what those programs are for.)
The problem with people like you mikey, is that you don't even understand the issue and whats at stake. We try to educate you but......Ha Ha, thats a laugh.
Wanna comment on the internet and have everyone agree with your green agenda? Won't happen. PEOPLE are in the equation with these wolves, whether you like it or not. We will have wolves with or without the green machine. Of course, once this is settled there will be alot less donations coming into DOW and EarthJustice, so they will have to invent some new cause to keep the money rolling in. Those fancy houses and trucks are hard to come by without hard work.
A little reality (opps, sorry reality) is a hard thing to take for some people.
Thanks for the compliment, mikey.