Glenn Elzinga, CEO and co-founder of Alderspring Ranch, knew life as a cattle rancher was going to change when he heard about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan to reintroduce gray wolves to central Idaho in 1995.
The reintroduction effort in Idaho was part of a 1987 federal recovery plan for wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains. At the time, gray wolves were protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
“A lot of ranchers said, well, you’re shoving this down our throats, but it’s a law. It’s federal law,” That’s why we got wolves,” Elzinga said. “I wasn’t a supporter of it all because I knew they were going to cause us trouble.”…