JACKSON, Wyo. — In the quest for coexistence in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), addressing the reality of humans’ competition with large carnivores is critical to the future of the local ecology. And to help prioritize coexisting over competing, wolf biologists say zonal management is an important key to the balancing act.
Large carnivores are a big focus in the GYE because of their reintroduction success and their roles as keystone species, but also because of the rivalry they seem to present to human communities in the region.
“We’re predators,” Susan Clark, co-founder and emeritus board member of the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative (NRCC), tells Buckrail. “We both require large landscapes, and we can’t use them all in the same way at the same time. Just having large carnivores around very much brings into real sharp focus that there are limits to what we’re doing.”
Peyton Curlee Griffin, president and co-treasurer of the NRCC, explains to Buckrail that large carnivores are probably the biggest test of people’s ability to coexist with local wildlife, both because of competition over space and resources and because predators are what initially forced people to confront the concept of an intact ecosystem.
According to Griffin, studying grizzly bears was the key to learning about how this area is part of a larger, connected landscape. That foundational understanding is what contributed to the development of the idea of the GYE and the insight that top predators are essential for maintaining the health of the ecological system; predators do this by managing the density of prey and enhancing the survival of other levels of wildlife, including plants.
As Griffin points out, losing large carnivores will disrupt the entire ecosystem. She says this is where the importance of coexistence comes in, because while the protection of wildlife like grizzly bears and wolves is essential, the pressures of predators on livestock is also a large concern.
At the 2023 Jackson Hole Wildlife Symposium last month, renowned former Senior Wildlife Biologist at Yellowstone National Park (YNP) Doug Smith suggested focusing on zonal management as a practical approach to alleviating stress on both carnivores and ranchers.
“There’s no question wolves cause conflict, but in order to manage wolves as wolves want to live, their social dynamic is very fragile,” Smith said. “I think what you do is you identify areas that are good for wolves that are low conflict, mostly public land that’s still intact, and you want to manage in favor of wolves. That doesn’t mean no harvest, but it means light harvest.”
Aaron Bott, a wolf biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife who was mentored by Smith, echoes the sentiment that wolves’ strategy for success in the GYE hinges upon fragile relationships that are threatened when a wolf crosses a park boundary and could be killed. Providing more informed zonal management like Smith suggests would still provide opportunities to pursue predators while allowing wolf population dynamics to become more resilient.
While there’s no simple solution to coexistence, Bott advocates this type of layered, relationship-based strategy can balance the needs of opposing parties in conversations led by collaboration. Smith says he’s not happy with the lack of progress he’s seeing, but he has hope that it will be possible to get people to meet somewhere in the middle by turning conversations about competition into strategies for coexistence.
“Coexistence is real sustainability,” Clark tells Buckrail. “It’s the right thing to do and now is the time to do it. As a matter of fact, we’re a day late.”
Keep an eye out for a final follow-up article to this series exploring how local rancher perspectives of coexistence can be integrated into strategies moving forward.
