Peace in the valley? Qualitative insights on collaborative coexistence from the Wood River Wolf Project

Abstract

Abstract Threats posed by wild predators to livestock production have too often resulted in human–wildlife conflict, to the detriment of these keystone species and broader biodiversity conservation. Long‐standard practices of lethal control are increasingly seen as costly, controversial, and ineffective, however, with nonlethal alternatives ever more prominent. In addition to assessing these tools' ecological effectiveness, there remains a key role for the social sciences, particularly qualitative research, in identifying obstacles to and opportunities for the long‐term sustainability and scaling up of these coexistence interventions. The Wood River Wolf Project (WRWP), a collaboration among ranchers, environmental organizations, and government agencies in Blaine County, Idaho, has pursued coexistence between gray wolves and domestic sheep since 2008, demonstrating and developing nonlethal techniques and garnering regional and international attention as a model for collaborative coexistence. Yet the Project has also struggled with changing conditions and internal challenges. Investigation of this prominent effort—its history and practices as well as the broader socio‐political and economic context—highlights the challenges of adaptive governance in the face of reduced capacity and hostile legal‐political contexts, while providing important insights for practitioners and policymakers promoting wildlife coexistence in shared landscapes.

Keywords

• adaptive governance
• American West
• convivial conservation
• environmental conflict
• gray wolves
• human–wildlife conflict