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Family grazes cattle elsewhere after wolves move in JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) – An expanding wolf population in the Bridger-Teton National Forest has prompted a Shoshoni ranching family to graze their cattle elsewhere.
“We decided we’d take non-use this year and go another direction and see what happens,” said Velma Pingetzer, whose family has grazed cattle near the headwaters of the Gros Ventre River and Crystal Creek in the Gros Ventre Wilderness for more than a decade. But this year, a family of wolves known as the Gros Ventre Pack has taken up residence on the Pingetzers’ 67,358-acre allotment about 20 miles east of Jackson. Typically the family moves the cattle onto the allotment June 18, she said. This year, a wildfire consumed 350 acres of vegetation on the parcel in early June. The family could probably cope with the fire, she said, but wolves are another story. Last year, wolves fed on at least two calves while the Pingetzers’ cattle were on forest land, she said. This year, the family did not want to risk a larger loss. “You can take a little loss. That’s expected,” Pingetzer said. “You can’t take a big loss.” Instead, the family is leasing a private pasture. Wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996 and the population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has grown to about 120. Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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