Washington, D.C. – Defenders of Wildlife today announced a new Proactive Carnivore Conservation Fund to protect threatened wolves and grizzly bears by assisting landowners with on-the-ground projects that reduce potential conflict between large predators and livestock. This new fund will operate in five western states and builds on the effective work of Defenders’ nationally acclaimed wolf and grizzly compensation trusts, which pay ranchers for verified livestock losses to wolves or grizzly bears.

"Our success at expanding the range of the wolf in the west will be directly proportional to how successful we are at reducing conflict between wolves and livestock," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. "When wild predators begin killing livestock, everyone loses – the rancher loses animals and the public loses its predators when they become targets of lethal removal."

Defenders has been experimenting with proactive work for the last two years; these projects are included as an attachment to this release. Establishment of the Proactive Carnivore Conservation Fund will allow Defenders to perform cost-share and planning work with ranchers, sheep producers and others who have conflicts with endangered wolves and bears in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arizona.

"Lethal control by government agencies in response to livestock predation is the single biggest cause of wolf mortality in the Northern Rockies" said Hank Fischer, Defenders of Wildlife Northern Rockies director. "Preventing conflict before it occurs is one of the smartest, most effective actions conservationists can take to maintain wild wolves in wild habitats."

Lethal control by state and federal wildlife agencies can have a significant impact on predator populations. For example, in 1997 in northwestern Montana, government lethal control stemming from livestock predation removed 20 percent of the total wolf population. Most wolves and bears tend to avoid humans and things associated with them, so even simple techniques to discourage predation in the first place can be remarkably effective.

Bob Fullerton, owner of the Chief Mountain Honey Company in Babb, Montana, has had success using electric fences – built with financial support from Defenders of Wildlife – to keep bears away from his beeyards. "I haven’t had a single problem with bears since we set up the electric fences," commented Fullerton. He plans to use a second grant from Defenders to exclude bears from his honey warehouse with similar measures.

"Building fences like these provides an all around, win-win situation," said Blackfeet Tribal Wildlife Biologist Dan Carney. "No bear breaks into the buildings and the grizzly bear populations are helped because they learn there will be no reward for attempting to break in."

Defenders is able to establish the Proactive Carnivore Conservation Fund thanks to generous grants by The Bailey Wildlife Foundation and the Tapeats Foundation, and the Liz Claiborne & Art Ortenberg Foundation. Funding by these foundations has supported pioneering work by Defenders of Wildlife on a variety of proactive measures to reduce wildlife conflicts with humans.