Only $9000 paid in Montana in 2006, but the State of Wyoming paid $110,000. The direct explanation for the difference is far fewer livestock killed in Montana than Wyoming. Indirectly, however, the Wyoming compensation formula for grizzly losses is so generous that there is no incentive to protect livestock from grizzlies. A grizzly loss can be a lucky event for the owner of the livestock in Wyoming.
Story in the Billing Gazette. By Mike Stark.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
