He said the systems were heavy and bulky, and it was hard to tune the boxes for the radio frequencies put off by collars.Īnd the technology involved was outdated. Rod Swift, president of Epimedia, a company with offices in New Mexico and California, said the process began with identifying the limitations of the old boxes. In 2020, Defenders of Wildlife started working with engineers at Epimedia to make a new, tougher version of the box. “At the end of last grazing season, we were down to one that was actually working,” Lehman said. Agency staffers spent a lot of time repairing them, and some were eventually beyond repair.Īt its peak, the agency had three RAG boxes. Staci Lehman, a WDFW spokesperson, said the agency has used the devices for at least 20 years, placing them in areas where wolves might have run-ins with livestock. Breakdowns were common, and finding a new one was tough because there were no consistent manufacturers of the devices. They’ve been used around the West since then, but not without problems. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services designed the original version, according to a WDFW blog post. “There’s a variety of ways that this can really help,” said Shawn Cantrell, vice president of field conservation for Defenders of Wildlife.Ī Montana rancher came up with the idea for RAG boxes in the 1990s. Officials and conservationists hope the new devices will find wide use and help cut back on conflict. It’s an improvement on technology that’s been used for decades to try to shoo wolves away from cattle. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has purchased five new radio-activated guard boxes, devices that play sounds and flash lights when triggered by the approach of a radio-collared wolf.Ĭalled RAG boxes for short, the devices were developed through a partnership between WDFW, wildlife agencies in California and Oregon, the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife and engineers at Epimedia, Inc. Washington wildlife officials have added to their wolf conservation repertoire with an improved version of an old tool to keep carnivores away from livestock.
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