Carter Niemeyer, a retired federal wildlife agent who is arguably THE premier expert on wolves in the West, decried what he called the "hysteria" and "sensationalism" surrounding the animal during a talk tonight in Yreka.
The 65-year-old former trapper who was involved with the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho gave more than an hourlong lecture on how ranchers can tell whether the dead calf or sheep on their property was actually killed by a wolf.
He said a tiny percentage of cattle kills in the West were actually done by wolves, but wolves tend to get blamed by worried landowners.
"They're here," he told about 100 people at the Miners Inn. "You're going to have to live with them. It's not a threat, it's just the way it is. An act of Congress brought them here, and it would take another act of Congress to make them go away."
Niemeyer came at the invitation of the Siskiyou County ag department, and his appearance was good timing considering the (rather silly) wolf-banning ordinance proposed this week to the county Board of Supervisors.
Here's a big feature we ran on Niemeyer about a year ago, courtesy of Portland's Oregonian.
For more on his speech and the reaction from county officials, look for my story at CapitalPress.com late tomorrow morning.
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