Smith: Predator-proof fence in Douglas County latest to provide relief from wolf depredations

MAPLE - The Soyring family has farmed this section of Douglas County since 1904.

It's on the Lake Superior clay plain, a mostly flat shoreline region in Wisconsin and Michigan with reddish, clayey soils and mixed forests.

A high vantage here allows sights of the blue of the largest Great Lake and the bluffs east of Duluth, Minnesota.

The land around Maple features a checkerboard of farms, woodlots and swamps. The Brule River State Forest covers a wild swath just to the northeast.

There are more productive agricultural areas in Wisconsin. But for five generations the Sorings have carved out a living by growing crops, milking dairy cows and, in the current operation, raising and tending beef cattle.

Lots of wildlife in the area, too.

Historically that was not as much of a problem for farmers and livestock producers in the area as it has been in the last 20 years, said Jim Soyring.

"My grandpa wouldn't have believed what we are living with," said Soyring, 54.

Soyring and his wife Lisa now lead the family farm, assisted by their four children, including the eldest, 27-year-old Dustin. The focus of the operation is raising black Angus beef cattle.

Gray wolves have become their most troublesome management issue. The population of the native predator was wiped out in Wisconsin by the 1960s through bounties, poisoning and unregulated hunting but through protections, including of the federal Endangered Species Act, has increased substantially in the last 50 years.

The latest report estimated 1,007 wolves in 283 packs in Wisconsin in late winter 2023, with most in the northern third of the state, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Jim Soyring said he began seeing wolves in the Maple area in the early 1990s. It wasn't until the 2000s that wolf depredations became a chronic issue on the family's livestock. Among the animals killed by wolves was a show heifer being raised by Dustin.

In 2023, the Soyrings lost six animals to wolf depredations, according to DNR data.

"If there's an armpit of wolf and livestock conflict in Wisconsin, you're sitting in it," said Dave Ruid, supervisory wildlife biologist with U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services during a July 16 visit to the farm.

The USDA's Wildlife Services staff provides assistance to livestock producers to "protect agriculture, natural resources, property, and health and safety" and uses a "multidisciplinary approach to find solutions to reduce or eliminate wildlife disease and damage." Its work includes trapping and killing animals, including wolves when permitted by law, around known depredation sites as well as the use of non-lethal deterrents.

The Soyrings graze livestock and raise crops on 1,000 acres. It includes 13 distinct pastures used to rotate or separate about 400 head of stock. In all the operation has about 37 miles of fencing, Jim Soyring said.

Almost all of that is standard four-wire variety. As farmers know, such a fence is designed to keep livestock in and does poorly to keep potential predators out.

But toward the center of the farm is a special, 36-acre enclosure surrounded by a "predator-proof fence."

It was designed by Ruid and Brad Koele, DNR wildlife damage specialist.

It features a wire fence 74 inches high (too high for a wolf to jump over) and has smaller mesh size toward the ground to keep smaller predators such as coyotes or foxes from squeezing through.

And perhaps most significantly, it has a 42-inch wire apron that extends across the ground on the outside of the perimeter. This prevents wolves and other animals from burrowing underneath the fence.

The predator-proof fence was installed at the Soyring's farm in Sept. 2023. How has it worked?

"We're very happy we have it," said Dustin Soyring. "It's been a huge improvement to what we can do to try to protect our livestock."

Since it was constructed no wolf or other predator has been able to enter the 36-acre enclosure. And no calf or other animal inside has been injured or killed.

The Soying's predator-proof enclosure was the sixth constructed in Wisconsin. Three have been designed for sheep operations, three for cattle and calves, Koele said.

All have been 100% successful at preventing livestock depredations.

That's right. Dating to the day in 2020 when the state's first predator-proof fence was constructed at a sheep farm in Price County, no wolf has been able to enter one of the specially-designed enclosures and injure or kill one of the livestock.

The same goes for other potential predators of domestic animals, including black bears, coyotes and red foxes.

Humans over millennia have worked to keep livestock safe from wild animals.

Indigenous peoples around the world arranged brush or other material as a protective barrier around their camps and animals.

In 1717 a wolf-proof structure (a 6-foot-high board fence) was proposed in the Cape Cod region but failed due to complaints from neighbors who didn't want wolves "shut out on them," according to the 1944 book "Wolves of North America."

In 1908 the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Forest Service studied the effectiveness of a fence around a 2,560-acre pasture in Wallowa National Forest in Oregon. It showed the structure reduced depredations from coyotes but not from black and grizzly bears.

The need for new methods of protecting livestock has increased in recent decades as the wolf population has grown in the Great Lakes region. Wolves are large enough to take down or injure animals as large as horses. Most of the depredation, though, is on calves and sheep.

Wolf depredations of livestock in northern Wisconsin occur mostly in two time windows, said Eric Fromm of USDA Wildlife Services. One is April and May, the other is mid-July to late September. The periods are separated by a "fawn lull" when wolves prey on recently-born white-tailed deer, Fromm said.

In an attempt to provide relief to Wisconsin farmers Ruid and Koele sat down in 2019 and schemed up a predator-proof fence.

"It was us with a tractor supply catalog saying let's try this, and how 'bout that, too," Ruid said.

The first was installed in 2020 with funds from a Congressional allocation to USDA Wildlife Services for non-lethal predator abatement. The money is available annually to states with predator-livestock conflicts. About $60,000 is available for projects each year in Wisconsin, Ruid said.

Funding from the DNR and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services livestock grant has also assisted three of the predator-proof fence installations.

Such predator-proof enclosures have become even more important since 2022 when the gray wolf was returned to protections of the Endangered Species Act, meaning no lethal means can be used to try protect livestock from wolves.

Ruid said that's meant he, Fromm and his other USDA Wildlife Services colleagues are working with "only half a tool box."

The Soyring farm also has fladry (flags attached to a wire or fence) and a "scare radio" on their property. The solar-powered radio plays human voices or music overnight and periodically turns on a bright light.

Such non-lethal abatement can work for a while, Fromm said. But eventually wolves learn that they can push past it and enter pastures holding livestock.

In 2023 the state paid $171,385 in compensation for wolf depredations in Wisconsin, according to the annual DNR report. The losses included 36 calves killed and 37 calves missing. About 20 Wisconsin farms had confirmed wolf depredations of livestock in the latest reporting period.

Although only a small fraction of Wisconsin farms suffer conflicts with wolves, it's a significant, added burden on those that do, Fromm said.

And the financial compensation program covers only some of the losses. Farmers are not compensated, for example, for lost weight on livestock caused by fleeing predators or calves that get trampled by cows as they are fending off attacks, Jim Soyring said.

There isn't enough money to put a predator-proof fence around every farm in wolf range. And not every property is suited for such a fence.

The structures require relatively even ground. They can't be successfully installed across ravines or creeks, for example.

And they are more expensive than standard fences. The predator-proof structures designed by the Wisconsin braintrust cost about $8.50 per foot and have ranged from about $29,000 to $67,000 in cost.

The DNR and USDA employees scrutinize potential sites before giving the green light.

"You can't throw this kind of money at a maybe," Ruid said.

The owner of each property is responsible for site preparation including removing trees and old fences before the fence is installed.

The solution has been a relief for the Soyrings. They began putting pregnant cows in the 36-acre enclosure in January after seeing harassment by wolves.

"The cows were much calmer (in the predator-proof enclosure)," Justing Soyring said. "And none of the calves got stepped on. We kept them in there until they had their calves and then until the calves were big enough."

But it is only a partial solution. The 36-acre enclosure can only hold a fraction of their herd.

About 900 acres of other pastures on their operation feature standard fencing and are susceptible to depredations.

In fact July 14 they lost a 200-pound calf to wolves. The animal had recently been rotated out of the predator-proof enclosure, Jim Soyring said.

Wildlife and technology have changed over the years. But the family that has farmed on this land for more than a century has no intention of quitting.

"This (predator-proof) fence is helpful for sure," Soyring said. "We're hopeful more innovations will come along to help us and other farmers keep their livestock safe, too."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Predator-proof fence in Douglas County latest to provide relief from wolf depredations