New Mexico ranchers to receive $3M to protect against predators
Dec. 26—About $3 million in federal funding will be made available to New Mexico ranchers to help them protect their livestock against predators, including Mexican wolves in an area designated for recovery of the endangered species.
The funding is part of $22 million the U.S. Department of Agriculture is funneling to five Western states through a consortium led by the Western Landowners Alliance and the Heart of the Rockies Initiative.
A total of $6.5 million will go to New Mexico and Arizona for a grazing management program that aims to reduce the conflict between livestock and predators such as wolves, cougars and grizzlies.
The grants require ranchers to match a portion in varying amounts, depending on their expenses, with the federal money covering 50% to 90%. Ranchers can use the money to hire range riders, build fencing and dispose of livestock carcasses.
The effort to decrease conflicts between predators and livestock has become important as the Mexican wolf population has increased in recent years, federal officials and ranchers say. Wolves were first released into the wild in New Mexico and Arizona in 1998 through a reintroduction program.
"Ranchers here in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona have been bearing the overwhelming majority of the financial burden for Mexican wolf reintroduction for over 25 years," Nelson Shirley, owner-operator of Spur Lake Cattle Co., said in a statement. "While there is some compensation for confirmed wolf kills of our livestock, ranchers and their families are up at night protecting their cattle, rescuing wounded calves and chasing off depredating wolves at largely their own expense."
With the new funding, ranch families can hire range riders to to spend more time on the land monitoring the livestock, Shirley said, crediting the Western Landowners Alliance for working to secure the USDA grants.
To aid in monitoring livestock, range riders launch drones, put surveillance cameras on fence posts or in trees or place radio-transmitter collars on their animals, said Louis Wertz, a spokesman for the Western Landowners Alliance.
The fixed "game cameras" are an effective way to spot interactions between predators and range animals, Wertz said. "They can get a picture if wolves are moving by, if cows are moving by."
In all, $1 billion in federal money is going into the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which seeks collaborative approaches to conservation on agricultural land through 81 projects across the country.
The bulk of Mexican wolves are contained within a recovery area extending through Arizona and New Mexico south of Interstate 40 and north of Interstate 10.
Still, frustrations between ranchers, the U.S. Forest Service and wildlife advocates have simmered for years over the wolves.
Officials hope the grant money will ease tensions.
Loren Patterson, president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, said ranchers need all the financial aid they can get with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service toughening the standards for compensating those whose livestock fall prey to roaming predators.
"They [federal agencies] don't pay for anything that's a probable kill. They only pay for confirmed kills," Patterson said. "Any money we can get to the livestock community is going to be appreciated."
