THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 28, 1994 TAG: 9412280417
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: EAST LAKE LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Hunters and development once wiped out Eastern North Carolina's red wolf population. Now the wolves are back, but face a new threat from some landowners and a state law taking effect Sunday.
Some farmers and hunters complain that red wolves are unnecessary predators and that their protection by federal regulations restricts use of private property.
James E. Johnson Jr. of Virginia Beach began his anti-wolf campaign after being threatened with prosecution for shooting a wolf he thought was a coyote. Since then, he has been trying to keep wolves off his White Tail Farms property in North Carolina's Hyde County.
He and other red wolf opponents will have more support for killing wolves under a new state law that allows wolves to be killed on private property in Hyde and Washington counties.
The wolves must be believed to be a threat to people or livestock and federal wildlife officials must have first been asked to remove the wolves. Federal authorities must be notified within 48 hours if a wolf has been killed.
``What they would like to do is see that program ended in eastern North Carolina,'' said Lawrence Davis, a Raleigh lawyer who represents Johnson. ``If the federal government wants to find another place, fine, but quit putting them out there.''
Red wolves once roamed freely throughout the Southeast. But by 1980, they were declared extinct in the wild and only a few animals survived in captivity.
Today, at least 42 red wolves are roaming fields, forests and swampland in five counties as part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project to re-establish the wolf in the wild.
Another 23 animals are kept in pens in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County to serve as breeding stock and to become acclimated to the area before being released.
Since the North Carolina project began in 1986, it has received widespread support from conservation groups and many residents who enjoy occasional sightings and the wolves' haunting howls.
But Davis said the wolves have become major predators of white tail deer and have attacked goats. Some people are wary of having wolves in an area where they are hiking or hunting, he said.
``I don't think hunters or farmers or anybody else living out there ought to be put in peril like that and worry about walking around on their own land,'' he said.
Despite the opposition, federal wildlife officials say the wolf program, which costs about $360,000 a year, still enjoys overwhelming support.
They cite agreements with private landowners that make about 200,000 acres of private property available for wolves. The roaming wolves are monitored with tracking collars and captured for study or when they stray.
Biologists dispute claims that the wolves are a major threat to livestock or wildlife. The wolves take prey, including deer, that eat field crops; also, biologists say, wolves benefit game birds by eating raccoons.
Gary Henry, red wolf project coordinator in Asheville, told The News & Observer of Raleigh that red wolves are natural predators in the region, and that they can be trapped and controlled if necessary.
With no wolves, he said, coyotes that have defied control elsewhere will continue moving into the region. by CNB