Sheep Industry News May 2024

WS Posts Data on Management, Funding

O n April 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Wildlife Services posted its annual program data reports for Fiscal Year 2023. The reports are available on the APHIS webpage, representing the 28th year WS has shared this information about its wildlife damage management activities. In the United States, wildlife is a public resource held in trust and managed by government agencies for present and future genera tions. Wildlife has great social and cultural value to people and is a natural resource that plays an important role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. Wildlife also provides food and clothing and supports recreational activities that generate billions of dollars of economic activity annually. While wildlife contributes positive value to the human environment, it also can have negative impacts on agri culture, human health and safety, property and natural resources. Predators cause an estimated $232 million in losses to livestock producers annually and bird damage to crops exceeds $150 million each year. Bird and other wildlife strikes with aircraft cost hundreds of mil lions of dollars in damage, delay flights, and threaten human health and safety. Abundant predators can have dramatic impacts on threatened and endangered species as in the case of nesting piping plovers and sea turtles which are vulnerable to raccoons, foxes and invasive feral swine. WS responds to requests for assistance from individuals, companies and other government agencies when wild life causes or threatens damage to human health/safety, agriculture, natural resources and property. In FY 2023, WS encountered about 28.3 million animals causing damage – or threatening to cause damage – while responding to calls for assistance and dispersed nearly 27 million of these animals unharmed from urban, rural and other settings. WS dispersed 94.6 percent of the animals encountered and used a variety of methods to do so. WS’ nonlethal wildlife damage management activities include: fladry – flags hung along the perimeter of a pasture, electric fenc ing, livestock protection dogs and range riding to reduce livestock predator conflicts; harassment, exclusion, and modifying habitats to reduce wildlife attractants on airfields and other areas of concern; installing flow devices in areas with beaver activity to control water levels and reduce impacts from flooding; trapping species of con cern such as grizzly bears and raptors and relocating them to areas where they won’t increase conflict; and others. WS’ National Wildlife Research Center collaborates with WS’ Operations and others to create and/or evaluate new methods for nonlethally resolving conflicts with wildlife such as developing new scare devices, innovating new repellents and testing existing com pounds for repelling properties, and using drones to move preda tors away from livestock or birds out of the flight path of planes.

However, nonlethal methods cannot resolve all wildlife related conflicts. Of all wildlife encountered in FY 2023, WS lethally removed 5.14 percent – or approximately 1.45 million – from areas where damage was occurring. Invasive species accounted for 74.2 percent of the wildlife lethally removed. Invasive species frequently disrupt normal ecosystem function by competing with native wildlife for resources, altering habitat, predating native plant and/or animal communities, transmitting novel foreign diseases, and caus ing other economic and ecological impacts to a local environment. Removing invasive species can help restore function and balance to ecosystems and protect biodiversity. When lethal control was necessary, WS donated as much animal meat as possible. In FY 2023, WS donated nearly 163 tons of deer, goose and other meat – more than a million servings of protein for people in need – and more than 18 tons of meat for animal con sumption to animal rehab centers, zoos and other facilities, making full use of this resource from wildlife damage management work. Visit APHIS.USDA.gov/wildlife-services/publications/pdr for the full program data reports. PROGRAM DATA REPORTS WS carries out its activities with a combination of congressional ly appropriated and cooperator-provided funding. In FY 2023, WS received about $166.5 million in appropriated funds – 58 percent of its total budget – to manage wildlife damage operations in every state and territory, conduct research and to support special pro grams, such as managing feral swine damage and rabies in raccoons and other wildlife. Funding from program cooperators – including federal and state agencies, counties, livestock producers and other agricultural producer groups, other organizations, businesses and individuals – allowed WS to maximize its scope and effectiveness. During FY 2023, WS received $119.9 million in cooperator-provid ed funding – 42 percent of its total budget – for operational wildlife damage management. In FY 2023, WS spent its budget as follows: • 27.65 percent to protect agriculture, including livestock, row crops, aquaculture and timber. • 46.62 percent to reduce or prevent wildlife hazards to human health and safety, such as wildlife collisions with aircraft and disease transmission. • 15.23 percent to protect property. • 10.50 percent to protect natural resources, including threatened and endangered species. DATA HIGHLIGHTS The program data reports list the work carried out by WS wild life biologists and field specialists, with information by state, species and other details. Some FY 2023 highlights include the following: • WS and its cooperators protected more than 342 threatened or

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