Could Wolves Boost Tourism?
	From the March 2000

By Lisa Parker
Sun-News

Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca sent a representative to Silver City Thursday night to make his views on Mexican gray wolf recovery in the Gila National Forest known: He supports it. According to his representative at Thursday's public input hearing, Baca believes wolves in the Gila "has numerous benefits for the city of Albuquerque." Specifically, Baca believes a relatively close proximity to wolves would mean an increase in tourism.

Julie Hicks, Baca's communications officer, said Idaho, Wyoming and Montana enjoy an estimated $20 million in tourism revenue directly generated by the presence of wolves. Wolves were reintroduced into that area's Yellowstone National Park in the mid-'90s.

"Wolves in particular are a significant draw for tourists," Hicks said.

Bill Van Dran, president of the Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce said Thursday night that "The Chamber's position is to support and foster business in Grant County. We don't support any translocation of wolves into any area of Grant County." He said the presence of wolves would be detrimental to business in general, and especially to agriculture, outfitting and hunting. "We think any potential increase in tourism because of the presence of wolves will have to occur in some sort of captive facility"that allows easy access to the animals.

But according to Ken Sinay, owner of Northern Rockies Natural History in Bozeman, Mont., Hicks may be correct. Sinay's one-man operation has been providing a nature-based tourism service for about 10 years, he said Friday.

A wildlife biologist "by education and trade," Sinay uses a Suburban rigged for wildlife viewing to take tourists on safari-style excursions into Yellowstone and surrounding areas.

Sinay said the presence of wolves in Yellowstone has benefited his business "phenomenally. ... The reason I can say 'phenomenally' is because of wolves as a marketing tool. The really important thing is how much attention has come to the area because wolves are there."

He believes any media attention regarding wolves benefits his business. "Even if there's conflict in the paper associated with wolves and livestock producers it's going to benefit me. ... It's all publicity that's marketing the area. Any publicity affects my bottom line.

"Someone in New York reading about wolves being introduced would think, 'Hey, that must be some great wild country -- I better go check it out.' ...

"Western cultures are having a love affair with large predators -- to have them and preserve them is something that people are almost demanding through the legislative process," he said.

Fifteen years ago people would come specifically to the park to see grizzly bears. "Five years ago bears were no longer the charismatic animal to look at," having been replaced virtually overnight by wolves. "Overnight the gift shops switched from bear icons to wolf icons," Sinay said.

"Yellowstone hands-down is the best place to actually see" wolves, Sinay said, because there is no hunting in the park. But, he added, people don't necessarily need to see wolves to want to come to an area they inhabit.

"You don't necessarily have to see the animal to experience it. Experiencing the wolves' habitat is experiencing the animal," he said. "What people need is for their expectations to be met," he explained, so he does not guarantee that his visitors will see wolves.

"The interest in wildlife viewing and observation is growing anyway on a natural and world scale," he said. The key to capitalizing on the trend is "assessing the wildlife resources of an area and creating a product --and communicating that to people. ... Marketing is what creates the product," he said.

His "product" incorporates many aspects of his area's ecosystem, he said. "The wolf got them here ... The product is something much bigger than the wolves themselves, but the wolves are the selling point. ...

"What people are coming for is wildlife, scenery and history. ... They're coming for pristine landscapes -- that's the main thing to preserve. Without that there is no tourism."

Another area with a wolf-based tourism industry is northern Minnesota, home to more than 2,000 gray wolves and the International Wolf Center in Ely. The Silver Rapids Lodge is located about 5 miles from Ely, and front-desk clerk Cindy Crawford said Friday, "We do have a lot of people who come up just to see wolves."

From Ely, with around 4,000 people, the closest large city is Duluth, Minn., two hours south. Crawford said she sees wolves four or five times a year, but doesn't believe the area's residents are fearful of the animals. Her biggest worry is for the area's dogs: "Every once in a while they go after a dog when it's tied up," she said. "But I haven't heard of that in a while."

The area's terrain is flat -- "We don't have any mountains up here at all."

She believes that tourists come to the area more for the Wolf Center than for the real thing. "They come from all over" to visit the Center, she said. "It's an international thing."

Do visitors expect to see wolves when they visit? "I think they expect to see any kind of wildlife," Crawford said. "Not necessarily a wolf."

Linda Eylsworth, information resources coordinator of the International Wolf Center, said "We're getting people visiting from all over the world. A lot of people are interested in wolves and they will come to areas where they think there's a chance to see them," or where there are educational field trips through wolf habitat.

"The chance is fairly slim to see wolves," she said, "but people do see them. In winter they can go up in planes to track radio-collared wolves.

"People like to camp where they think they might hear wolf howls."

Are people deterred from recreating in the area because of wolves? "Oh no. I mean, people have more to worry about from black bears," Eylsworth said emphatically.

Brenda and Travis Bullock own an outfitting business, Mile High Outfitters, based out of Challis, Idaho. Their hunting territory is in the middle of the Frank Church Wilderness in the central part of the state.

When wolves were reintroduced into the Wilderness in 1996, Brenda said Travis "decided he might as well make money off" them.

There are two packs in their hunting area, she said, estimating each has about 14 members, including pups. She described the terrain as "straight up -- straight down. The biggest meadows are around 400 acres and there aren't very many of them."

Brenda has not seen the wolves yet, and "I don't really feel threatened." She said she is more worried for her dog. "It seems like they really like to go after dogs," she said.

"I do pack a gun around with me just because there are lots of mountain lions and wolves" in the area.

Travis takes guests on week-long camping trips in the heart of the Wilderness for the purpose of seeing and/or hearing wolves. Wolf-tour season is during the summer months -- hunting off-season.

"We normally see imprints and hear them howl," Brenda said. In the few years Travis has been guiding wolf trips, she said last year was the first time guests actually saw wolves. A pack killed a cow elk between the group's camp and a Forest Service cabin, also in use by campers. The two sites are about 800 yards apart, she said, and Travis's guests got pictures of the wolves on their kill.

Brenda said a wildlife biologist usually accompanies the guests and Travis, and the trip entails making plaster imprints of wolf tracks, looking at scat and trying to find wolf kills. The average price per guest for a five-day wolf trip is $1,500. The average price for a five-day elk hunt is $3,500, she said.

She believes interest in wolves is waning. "The first year Travis did it we probably had 23 guests, and last year we had eight," she said.

The presence of wolves hasn't deterred many hunters from coming to the area, she said, but she is concerned that "We have noticed a real decline in (elk) calf numbers." At first, she said, "It seemed like they had been killing more calves -- now they seem to be killing more cows."

A decline in the elk population could lead to greater restrictions on hunting in the area, she fears. "We're in debt $300,000 for this business," she said, explaining that is what they paid for the hunting rights in their area. "It's not worth anything if there's no hunting."

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