On the Origins of the Cortes Community Wolf Project

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There was an increasing number of wolf sightings and encounters on Cortes Island during the closing months of 2008. A number of posts in the Tideline over the course of the next two years mention 'an awful lot of them on the island, in an awfully short time.' There were mixed reactions. A Squirrel Cove resident wrote that 15 ran through one of their neighbours yards at 4 AM. Someone had a 'magical encounter' with a large black wolf, standing on the foot bridge over the channel connecting Gunflint and Hague Lakes, as she paddled through with her canoe. Another resident reported that three wolves killed her dog, only 70 feet from her house.


More than 150 people gathered in the Linnaea School, on January 17, 2009, when local biologist Sabina Leader Mense brought in two experts to share their experiences with wolves. Conservation Officer Ben York thanked the audience for bringing him in to discuss the situation, rather than put an animal down. He also stated that some of the wolves on Cortes ‘are very habituated’ and ‘˜there is a level of tolerance for these animals that is endangering them.’


The other expert was Bob Hansen, a wildlife/human conflict specialist in the Pacific Rim National Reserve.


Hanson was also one of the principle speakers at the recent Wildlife Coexistence Gathering on Cortes Island.  He explained that prior to receiving Sabina’s invitation, his attention was primarily focused on the Pacific Rim community.


"I was approached by another champion, Sabina, because she'd heard about the Wild Coast Project." 


"So now we're  taking a step away from the West Coast. We were really laser focused. I was hesitant, and the management team was really hesitant, like - 'you want to leave the park and  go over to the other side of the island?'  They did agree, and the only stipulation they made  was that the CO service had to be here as well."


"It turned out our other champion, Ben York, was the CO. We'd worked together on Bear Aware in our area and he'd taken a new posting. By this time Ben had married Crystal.” (Laughter) 


(In the first article of this series, Hansen described Crystal McMillan as a force of nature in the Ucluelet area. Her Bear Aware group was so effective that she received a Premier’s Award. She insisted that all of her partners and collaborators also be recognized. So Premier Gordon Campbell presented the award to a group of people that included Crystal, Bob Hansen and Ben York.)  


"So Ben and Crystal came to our first Cortes get-together in 2009.  That was a huge learning experience, and out of that came the Wolf Primer. You were working on the whole idea of identifying and getting to know individual wolves  and understanding which wolves were behaving in which ways."


Some of the wolves were drawn by the sheep carcasses at the back of Blue Jay Lake Farm. During his slideshow presentation, Hanson praised the farmer for his innovative solution.  


Ben Hansen: "Under that blue tarp is a giant hill of moldering hay, and  he started disposing of his carcasses with that. It's super hot, they break down really quickly, no more issues with the wolves patrolling  for dead sheep."   


"That led to the more in depth workshop in two years, where Grace SoftDeer, ourselves and Ben York came, along with some of the researchers from the Wild Coast Project.  We stayed at Christine Robinson's place. That was the storytelling workshop, another really rich experience."