WOLF Act Gives Ranchers A Fighting Chance

I am a fifth-generation rancher who has spent my entire life ranching in the Mexican gray wolf experimental population area in southwest NM. I am deeply connected to this land and community my family and I proudly call home, which is why it pains me to see the struggles we face due to the wolf reintroduction reduced to nothing more than a financial burden on America’s taxpayers in Greta Anderson’s recent article, “WOLF Act Isn’t Fair To Wolves Or The Public.”

I have personally watched ranch families go out of business because of the impact the wolves had on their cattle and their families. Every livestock killed by a wolf directly, and significantly, impacts our livelihoods, but current depredation support programs fall short of providing timely and fair support for our losses. Even after following the established procedure for confirming livestock was killed by a wolf, those payments only compensate us for 75% of the market value of that animal and can take as long as two years to come through.

Any small family-owned business, a ranch included, can’t withstand that kind of financial impact for long. The WOLF Act is one step toward making ranchers whole after confirmed losses so they can continue to do what they love and produce food for our communities.

But the impacts of wolves go far beyond those “seen” losses through confirmed kills. My four young children have cried many times thinking they were going to get attacked by wolves when they hear or see them close by our home, and our schools in Catron County put up shelters for our kids as they wait for the school bus to come, so they will be safe. Our family pets, including our horses have been attacked and killed by wolves. Even our cattle herd’s health, which we monitor closely, has suffered as a result of the presence of the wolves.

Ranching in New Mexico, valued at nearly $2.3 billion, is an economic driver for many rural communities and our state and is an important part of our state’s heritage. The WOLF Act seeks to address the true cost in time and resources ranchers have borne alone while raising livestock among wolves.

Ranching is a hard and unpredictable way of life, but I, along with so many other ranching families, choose this life because we are passionate about feeding our communities and stewarding the land entrusted to our care. We seek to make improvements to private and public land through water pipelines, brush removal, erosion dams and more because we want to leave this land better for future generations. These improvements are often possible because of the financial assistance provided through conservation programs and not only benefits our cattle, but the local elk and deer populations that serve as prey to the wolf and a source of income to our rural communities.

I believe the WOLF Act is a common-sense approach that promotes wildlife recovery efforts and increases tolerance among impacted communities. I appreciate U.S. Sens. Ben Ray Lujan, Kyrsten Sinema and John Cornyn for recognizing the impacts of the wolf population on the ranching community and being a part of the solution to give ranch families across the Mexican wolf experimental population a fighting chance to make an honest living and continue to do what we are passionate about.