While we've used a jokey headline to get your attention, wolf attacks on livestock are no laughing matter. But farmers can take non-lethal-to-wolves preventative measures--from guard animals to wolf-deterring lights and alarms--to protect their livestock and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture is offering producers inside Minnesota’s wolf range 80:20 matching cost-share grants for those measures
Here's the press release from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture:
Grant Money Available to Minnesota Livestock Owners for Prevention of Wolf Attacks
Applications due January 24, 2022
St. Paul, MN: New money is available to Minnesota livestock producers to help prevent wolf attacks. A total of $60,000 will be awarded by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) through the Wolf-Livestock Conflict Prevention Grants. Applications are due January 24, 2022.
The grants provide reimbursement for costs of approved practices to prevent wolf-livestock conflicts. Eligible expenses for the grant program will include any or all of the following items:
- Purchase of guard animals
- Veterinary costs for guard animals
- Installation of wolf-barriers which may include pens, fladry, and fencing
- Installation of wolf-deterring lights and alarms
- Calving or lambing shelters
- Other measures demonstrated to effectively reduce wolf-livestock conflicts
Eligible producers must live within Minnesota’s wolf range, as designated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or on property determined by the Commissioner of Agriculture to be affected by wolf-livestock conflicts. Any animal species produced for profit and documented to have been killed by wolves in Minnesota in the past is eligible. This includes bison, cattle, chicken, deer, donkey, duck, geese, goat, horse, llama, mule, sheep, swine, and turkey.
The funding also requires an 80:20 matching cost-share, meaning 80% of eligible project costs will be reimbursed by the grant and the remaining 20% will be paid for by the grantee.
The grant application must be emailed or postmarked by 5 p.m. on January 24, 2022. Work for this grant must be done and expenses reported by August 31, 2022. The application and more information can be found at www.mda.state.mn.us/wolfgrants
. This is the fifth round of funding through the Wolf-Livestock Conflict Prevention Grants. The first two rounds were funded by the Minnesota Legislature in 2017. This round and the other rounds have been funded by grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Back in July, Forum Communications/Duluth New Tribune outdoors and environment staffer John Myers reported in Minnesota DNR calls off wolf hunt this year despite support from farmers, hunters:
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday, July 7, said there will be no wolf hunting and trapping season in Minnesota in 2021 as the agency continues to develop a new long-term wolf management plan.
DNR officials made the announcement during a video meeting of the agency’s wolf plan advisory committee that is helping plot the future of wolf management in the state. . . .
Minnesota could hold a wolf hunting and trapping season this year because the animal has been taken off the federal endangered species list, as of January, with management now in the hands of state and tribal resource agencies.
Current state law says the DNR “may’’ hold a wolf hunt when federal protections are removed. Legislation to force the DNR to hold a wolf hunt, and another bill to prevent them from holding a wolf hunt, both failed to pass the 2021 Minnesota Legislature, leaving the decision up to the agency.
Many farmers and deer hunters have pushed for a wolf season, saying the big canines are killing livestock, threatening pets and people, depleting deer numbers and need to be culled.
But wolf supporters say the animals should remain protected. Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity and a member of the state’s wolf plan advisory committee, said the DNR is making the right decision. . . .
Photo: A beef cow and her calf. While one guard animal might not protect a calf from a pack of wolves, several guard animals can do the job.
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