I’m excited for the future of ranching in Colorado and it’s because of wolves.
Does that sound incongruent? It makes perfect sense, actually.
It’s because cattle rancher Glenn Elzinga and his crew boss, daughter Melanie, show us that not only can wolves coexist with cattle operations, but both their activities contribute beautifully toward recovering wildlands with diverse flora and fauna, lessening fire danger, and bringing together neighbors once divided to achieve broader common goals.
Glenn and Melanie own Alderspring Ranch in the central Rocky Mountains of Idaho, and Monday at Glenwood Springs library shared their success story of raising organic, grass-fed Black Angus cattle on 46,000 acres of public rangelands, alongside 1,500 wolves.
Their speaking engagement was a clarion call for cowboys, ranchers, environmentalists and wildlife advocates to come together with curiosity, not animosity, and learn how Alderspring Ranch doubled its herd, without one wolf killed for depredation in the past 10 years.
The best life lessons start with the hardest challenges. When the feds brought wolves back to Idaho, Glen experienced cattle losses. Similar to Colorado’s today, wolves were illegally shot dead, although not by Elzinga or his crews. The ranching community knew who did it and where the bodies were dumped, and no one was talking.
Elzinga thought about hanging up his hat, but in his heart he knew what he needed to do: regain control of his life’s work through smart, positive action, not reaction.
As serendipity goes, Glenn’s eye caught sight of an oil painting of cowboys inherding, a method driving his ranch operations today. Alderspring Ranch crews don’t run cattle, they inherd, or ride with them, sleep beside them at night, and select grazing lands that put animals and their activity in harmony with the land, not against it.
“If you see our cattle out on the landscape, they will have their heads down. They are grazing, and not stressed or afraid,” Glenn explained in his slideshow at the library. And when you have grazing cattle, you get fat cattle, which is what every rancher wants.
Inherding is similar to range riding, where caretakers on horseback stick with the herd, and Colorado is taking applications today as one of many methods of nonlethal deterrents to protect livestock alongside wolves.
The Alderspring crews report they have watched wolves feasting on elk uphill from cattle without incident because of inherding.
Although his talk was focused on living with wolves, I was equally fascinated by how Alderspring’s creative practices have improved riparian, fish and sage-grouse habitat. It’s ecologically informed grazing that could transform the West.
As he puts it, inherding follows naturally how the bison once roamed.
“I didn’t find success until I experienced a shift and started thinking holistically, and in terms of relationships with the land, with the animals, and the wildlife from songbirds to beavers, and of course relationships with the people in our community.”
This natural, holistic vision of ranching is shared by the family, including seven daughters as herders. Glenn’s wife, Caryl, is a plant ecologist. They have passion to help the next generation of ranchers follow what seems to honor Native American wisdom for “living in right relationship” with the land and its inhabitants. Plus, their operation is carbon neutral and economically thriving.
The experience being in Colorado was all he hoped as conversations went well into the night, even at a café with ranchers and advocates.
Ultimately, I think what we learned here, is that when you pit wolves against ranchers into an arena, no one wins because this is not a zero-sum game. Taking that sports metaphor further: “Once you stop going in circles around the dang track, you realize we can all cross that finish line, together,” Glenn adds, just about time to go board his plane home.
Julie Marshall is director for Western Wildlife and Ecology at the Center for a Humane Economy, and Colorado State director for Animal Wellness Action.
