Makeshine looks at wolf, grizzly management
BRODIE FARQUHAR Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 12:00 am
LANDER - The former chief of the Wind River Police Department is now director of the Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game Department.
Larry Makeshine served as the police chief for a decade, followed by a four-year term as the department's federal crimes investigator. An enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, Makeshine will now administer a fish and game department of nine game wardens and other specialists.
In a Monday telephone interview, Makeshine said he was reviewing a management plan for grizzly bears, wolves and sage grouse on the Wind River Indian Reservation - funded with a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"They're already here (on the reservation)," Makeshine said. Campers, hikers and hunters have reported sightings of wolves and grizzly bears in the backcountry of the Wind River Range to the west and the Owl Creek Mountains to the north, where the Arapaho operate a large ranch.
"We haven't had any reports of livestock losses (due to wolves and grizzlies)," Makeshine said, though three dead cows were reported in a small area and cause of death could not be determined.
Tribal elders and the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone business councils have made it clear that wolves and grizzly bears are "important aspects of tribal culture," Makeshine said.
Dave Skates and Mark Hogan, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Lander, are working closely with their counterparts on the Wind River reservation to develop management plans for the three species. Because of tribal sovereignty, they said, the tribes can manage wolves, grizzlies and sage grouse as they wish, unbeholden to federal or state game managers.
Skates said tribal leaders have a "let 'em come" attitude about wolves and grizzly bears. His goal is to work with the tribal Fish and Game Department to have management plans developed and department staff trained to manage these species by the time they're delisted.
Makeshine said he is also concerned about the apparently inevitable arrival of chronic wasting disease on the reservation.
"It is not a matter of if, but of when it arrives," Makeshine said. Chronic wasting disease is a contagious disease that infects the central nervous systems of deer and elk. It leads to death in infected animals - symptoms include staggering, listlessness and chronic weight loss.
"It is already 50 miles north of us," he said, referring to a case identified near Worland last year.
The tribal Fish and Game Department has received a $30,000 federal grant to offer incentives to hunters willing to have their kills tested for chronic wasting disease.
Makeshine said he's considering having a drawing for those hunters who participate, with prizes such as hunting rifles or bows.
Hunting on the reservation is limited to either enrolled members of the two tribes, or spouses of enrolled members.
Makeshine said test samples can be gathered in the field by game wardens who remove the animals' lymph nodes for analysis. Heads of deer and elk can also be dropped off at the department's Fort Washakie office for testing.
The department ran a similar program last year, but had only 12 tissue samples to show for it. Makeshine said he hopes for a better response this year.
Makeshine would also like to pursue include a bear awareness program on the reservation for tribal members and visitors alike.
Makeshine replaces Ben Warren as head of the department. Warren is working another position within the department.