But soon, when federal "endangered species" status no longer protects them from hunters, wolves must be managed wisely or their probable fate will be the same annihilation they faced in the early 20th century after Utah's territorial government offered a dollar per wolf killed.
After decades of study that proved wolves' value in the ecosystem of the West, wildlife biologists and wolf advocates won approval from the federal government to re-introduce Canus lupis. Their numbers have grown from about 60 in the greater Yellowstone area to about 800 in parts of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.
Utah's final management plan was shaped by public comment given to five regional advisory councils whose recommendations will be considered by the Wolf Working Group and the state Division of Wildlife Resources. The ultimate blueprint must provide protection to the wolves and also to ranchers whose livestock may be affected by wolf predation. The interests of neither should be protected at the expense of the other.
All five regional councils have supported the right of ranchers to shoot wolves they see attacking or threatening their animals on private land or on public property where they graze. However, that provision must not be interpreted as absolute authority to shoot wolves on sight.
Thirteen members of the diverse Wolf Working Group, including Utah ranchers, hunters, wolf advocates, scientists and wildlife managers, spent 18 months devising a management plan that should become the roadmap to survival for wolves from the restored populations that undoubtedly will eventually roam into the state.
The group's draft plan rightly called for ranchers to get a permit to go after a wolf after a confirmed livestock kill on private land or two kills on public land.
Compensation to ranchers for verified kills by wolves should be part of the final plan. Wolves are not likely to erode domestic herds, and compensating owners for livestock losses makes more sense than allowing the wholesale slaughter of wolves.
If wolves can be killed before predation is affirmed, they will not survive long here, and Utah would be the worse off for the loss of this keystone predator. Wolves deserve a place among us, for our good as well as theirs, in what remains of the wild lands of the West.
