Point Reyes Light - November 2, 2000
Sheepranchers question supes’ commitment to ag after coyote decision
By Stephen Barrett
West Marin sheep ranchers reacted with disappointment to a decision Tuesday by county supervisors to phase out all lethal methods of controlling coyotes.
In past years, the County of Marin has hired a wildlife specialist through the US Department of Agriculture to monitor livestock predators, consult with ranchers about non-lethal methods of controls, and catch problematic coyotes or other predators as a last resort.
However, USDA wildlife services specialist Steve Valentine resigned in 1999 as the Marin Coalition for California Wildlife, an umbrella group of animals’ rights and environmental organizations, pressured county officials to prohibit the practice of gassing coyotes in their dens, one of the few lethal methods of coyote control still allowed under California law.
The USDA also balked at having local officials dictate wildlife control policies and refused to sign any contract with the county until supervisors voted 3-2 earlier this year to allow the controversial, if rarely used, practice of filling coyote dens with sodium nitrate gas.
Two more years
This week, county supervisors voted 4-1, with Hal Brown dissenting, to renew its annual $30,000 contract with the USDA for a wildlife specialist through June 2002, then throw county support entirely behind a non-lethal program to be developed by the Northbay Woolgrowers Association or some other industry group.
Agricultural Commissioner Stacy Carlsen told supervisors that budgeting $50,000 a year to non-lethal wildlife control would help keep Marin on the progressive edge of agriculture without sacrificing its commitment to local ranchers.
"There has been little consensus following numerous meetings between ranchers and animal protection interest groups," Carlsen said. "This lack of consensus has disrupted the county’s platform of ideas, activities, and directives designed to bring a social, biological, and economic balance to the program...
"This plan sets a course to sustain the viability of sheep ranching in the county."
But Tomales sheep rancher Roxanne Thornton, a director of the Northbay Woolgrowers Association, said Wednesday the organization has not yet been asked to develop a predator control program. She said local ranchers have been left to fend entirely for themselves since the USDA pulled out of Marin.
Ranchers on their own
Without a wildlife specialist, she said, ranchers have no clue about the number of problematic coyotes around, which ranches they are preying upon, or what non-lethal methods have proven effective against them.
"Because we haven’t had any professionals in the field, we have no idea how many losses are happening, nor do we know how many coyotes have been killed because ranchers are taking matters into their own hands, nor do we know if any non-target animals have been removed," she said. "I don’t know anymore what’s happening on ranches in the county, and no one knows."
Thornton credited the USDA with providing suggestions that ranged from using guard dogs and llamas to sirens, scarecrows, and flashing lights in order to keep coyotes away.
Joe Pozzi, vice-president of the California Woolgrowers Association, said the absence of the USDA specialist has been devastating to West Marin sheep ranching and fears what will happen when all federal help disappears in 2002.
Support of ag questioned
"I wonder if this county realizes how lucky it is to have a contract with the [USDA] and a partnership with the state and federal government," Pozzi told supervisors. "You have access to all the latest management tools, both lethal and non-lethal, and to all the latest information in the field of research."
Frustrated by the supervisors’ decision to phase out the USDA program, Pozzi added Wednesday: "Anything that takes a trained specialist out of the field who can help us is a blow to the industry, a critical blow in these times. You feel like you’re on your own as an industry, and that’s frustrating in a county that’s supposed to support agriculture."
Coyotes started returning in force to West Marin ranches in 1983 after a 40-year absence period in which sheepmen used bait poisoned with the compound 10-80 to kill predators. When the Nixon administration banned 10-80, the coyotes slowly started returning to their former territories.
Losing battle
Since then, ranchers have been fighting a losing battle with animal rights’ activists about the use of lethal methods to curtail livestock predation. In 1998, California voters passed Proposition 4, which outlawed poison sheep collars and most kinds of lethal traps.
Members of Marin Coalition for California Wildlife have argued that taxpayers’ dollars should not be spent on lethal animal control when non-lethal methods are available. West Marin ranchers have argued that lethal methods are only used as a last resort to eliminate rogue coyotes that kill scores of sheep and cost ranchers thousands of dollars each year.
According the coalition, the USDA killed 14 coyotes, 24 badgers, and 30 foxes in 1999. Camilla Fox, a wildlife coordinator at the Animal Protection Institute, welcomed the supervisors’ decision to phase out the USDA program. "By this vote, Marin County has taken a bold step toward protecting wildlife and ensuring that agriculture and the environment can peacefully co-exist," she said.