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Washington range rider’s passion for wolves shows up in his work

A still from the film
A still from the film

Daniel Curry, a range rider in Washington state who serves as a buffer between wolves and cattle — and wolves and ranchers — is also the subject of a short film gaining attention across the Western U.S. He visited Carbondale on Nov. 21 to screen the film and answer questions from the audience.

"I’ve worked with wolves for a little over 22 years now. And when I was 30, I read an article in a local paper for the city of Spokane. And what I read in that article was really disturbing," he said.

"The rancher lost cows, the wolves lost their lives for eating those cows. And as taxpayers, we paid an exorbitant amount of money to have that happen."

By “have that happen”, Curry is referring to the lethal removal of that pack.

"So at that time I was working in a sanctuary for wolves. It's a world-renowned sanctuary. So I was really passionate about wolves. I really value animals. And I saw these animals suffering at the hands of our own state agency and thought that there's got to be some way to improve that situation. When everybody's losing, there's room for improvement, obviously," he said.
Curry moved to the corner of northeast Washington to help.

"Eventually I read about range riding from a Canadian paper. I thought that I could utilize my wolf behavior knowledge and my skills with wolves coupled with my knowledge of horseback riding and cattle behavior, put those together and offer some kind of service to the community, both wildlife and the people of Washington state to go beyond coexistence."

Curry says he doesn't like that term “co-existence," and prefers the term “co-thriving.”

"I think co-existence is a very subpar way to live. We're just barely existing with each other on the planet. So that's what I dedicated the next 12 years of my life to and, well, now I'm talking to you."

Curry's work is now focused on Washington state which is where the main base for Project GRIPH is. The organization is also establishing chapters of the nonprofit in the Western U.S.

"I've been to Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, and we're trying to establish a service like we've done in Washington in a larger geographic area. I've gone to speak to the communities of all these areas — ranchers primarily — and also some state agency personnel. They're all experiencing the same problems of trying to figure out a way forward."

"We have a very good service. We have a service that's got a proven track record. We've worked with people that, you know, start pulling what little hair they have out of their head, saying “the only good wolf is a dead wolf. There's just too many of them. And now they're taking videos of these animals interacting with the cows because they don't have conflicts."

Curry says his goal is to scale up the service to the Western U.S. He says the group has also had some interest from France and Finland.

"We're going to continue to come up against potential conflict as we grow unfettered in these wild areas. These animals are learning from us that with humans come food sources. We have all kinds of options that we'll have to take advantage of because we're leaving [the animals] very little. Project GRIPH focuses on conflict mitigation, but we also focus on education and outreach and just preventative maintenance. When I started working with animals when I was a little kid, the old adage really stuck with me: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," said Curry.

"That's kind of our philosophy, so to speak. If we get on the landscape and we prevent any kind of conflict from happening and we don't have to worry about all this, like, turmoil that comes from the conflict, we don't have to worry about all the ancillary costs that we have to pay people now for compensation. Like saying, 'Hey, if you lose cattle, we'll just pay you money.' That's fraught with loopholes and problems in itself."

Curry says biodiversity is like a well-tuned machine. "Everything's connected. Everything has a purpose. All these life forms are incredibly important. In my opinion, they're all sentient beings. And the sooner we find that out, the better."

"Look how we've learned about wolves. Look how wolves are portrayed when we're kids. We've demonized these creatures based on the historic experiences we've had in the past, based on some archaic knowledge in our brain. You know, as we colonized the United States, we moved West and we brought livestock with us. But we're not participating in a nomadic tradition now. We're basically altering the natural environment. And then we're upset when there are animals taking advantage of that loophole. That's something that's not evil; they're surviving."

"What these animals are left with is a dwindling landscape and they're doing the best they can. The sooner we start managing for a collective better, like a collective whole, we'll get somewhere positive. If we continue to manage from this human-centric point of view, we will continue to diminish our ungulate herds. We will diminish our large carnivores. We're going to be left with a world that's not natural. I mean, we are the only animal that throws the natural environment off balance. And, at this point in human evolution, we're also the only animal that will bring it back into balance."
Copyright 2024 KDNK

This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including Aspen Public Radio.

Amy Hadden Marsh