In The Field With Carter Niemeyer

Wolf expert Carter Niemeyer leads a winter animal tracking trip in Idaho last year.

For more than 25 years, Carter Niemeyer was an integral part of wolf recovery in the Northern Rockies. He started out as a trapper in Montana for USDA’s Wildlife Services and went on to become coordinator of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf program in Idaho.

Now that he has retired, he’s helping to bring greater accountability to his former employer. Last week, Niemeyer and Defenders’ own wolf expert Suzanne Stone visited the site of a suspected wolf kill outside Boise, Idaho to make an instructional video for an upcoming training workshop on identifying wolf kills. Much to their surprise, they found no evidence whatsoever that the dead cow had been killed by wolves, even though Wildlife Services had already confirmed the cow’s death as a wolf kill.

Wolfer: A Memoir chronicles the adventures of Carter Niemeyer, former trapper in Montana and wolf recovery coordinator in Idaho.

Instances like these show how difficult it can be to properly identify a wolf kill and point to Wildlife Services’ willingness to blame wolves based on inconclusive evidence. Niemeyer recently published a memoir documenting his years with Wildlife Services. He’s now calling on that agency to change its ways by giving priority to nonlethal deterrents and other strategies to help wolves and livestock coexist, instead of killing wolves unnecessarily.

Here’s an interview with Carter from back in 2008, conducted by former Defenders Communications Specialist Erin McCallum.

1) When did you first become interested in wolves and why?

I became interested in wolves out of necessity when I worked for Wildlife Services as a biologist/supervisor in western Montana in the mid-1980s.  Wolves began to naturally immigrate into northwest Montana from Canada and prey on livestock in that region.  It was my job to help stop depredations on livestock and to develop skills in capturing wolves and establish communications between the various groups affected by our actions including livestock producers and organizations, federal, state and Tribal agencies, conservation groups and the general public.  Out of necessity, I became an expert on wolf management issues and spent most of my career working to solve human/wolf/livestock conflict issues while at the same time working to help wolves recover in the Northern Rockies.

2) What do you think is the most important issue Northern Rockies wolves face today, and what can we do to help?

Co-existence with man is the principle issue in my opinion.  Wolves carry a lot of baggage — from myth and fairy tale stories that feed people’s fears to their need to survive as carnivores by eating meat including elk and deer that sportsmen want, to occasionally killing pets and livestock, which causes emotional and economic hardship for farmers and ranchers.  Federal and state wolf managers need to carefully balance the needs of a diverse human society that fears and resents the wolf with those who love and admire the wolf.  Precisely because of the public’s mixed attitudes and values regarding the wolf, managers must find ways to establish trust among everyone. It is the only way that wolves will survive in perpetuity.

The problem isn’t the wolf, it’s human/wolf conflicts both real and perceived, and these will most likely never go away.

3) What is the most rewarding experience you can remember during the long time that you have been working with wolves?

Each new experience I have with wolves seems to be more rewarding than the last, but I believe that resolving wolf conflicts with people has been the most rewarding of all.  I have been blessed with people skills and I can usually talk reason into anybody.  Also, I’ve used my skills as a hunter and trapper to capture, collar, and relocate many wolves that would otherwise have been killed for their transgressions (killing pets or livestock, or living too close to humans).  In a few instances I was required to kill wolves because I lacked other choices.  I have personally captured over 240 wolves in my career and the vast majority lived to see another day.

4) Are you hopeful for the future of wolves in the Northern Rockies region?

I’m optimistic that wolves are here to stay, at least in the Northern Rockies.  Wolf managers estimate that we have more than 1,500 wolves in 192 packs with individual wolves dispersing throughout the recovery areas. They are showing up in Washington, Oregon, Utah and one even ventured into Colorado before it was killed.  We have a viable wolf population with excellent genetic diversity.  The federal reintroduction team did an excellent job creating a foundation upon which to build and maintain a wolf  population that everyone to enjoy.  The problem isn’t the wolf, it’s human/wolf conflicts both real and perceived, and these will most likely never go away.

Click here to listen to a recent interview with Carter on Boise State Public Radio.