A University of Idaho-led team next month will start studying how drought and wolves impact rangeland and the people who live and raise livestock there.

A $1.6 million National Science Foundation grant is funding the five-year project. It includes collaborators from the University of Michigan, Ohio State University and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Researchers will study six sites in Idaho and Oregon, each equipped with 50 cameras. The team aims to find out more about how drought affects vegetation and in turn livestock, deer, elk and their interactions with predators. Scientists also will explore the impacts wolves and drought have on ranching communities and rangeland.

“We’ll look at the interactions between wolves and drought, and how those affect wild ungulate populations as well as livestock and people who live there,” lead investigator Sophie Gilbert, a UI assistant professor of wildlife ecology and management, said.

She said the study will examine the interconnectedness of humans, plants and animals on rangeland in the face of a changing climate and other stressors.

Rangeland and the people who live and work on it are seeing multiple stressors at once, Gilbert said in an interview. Drought, wildfire, livestock market challenges and the return of large carnivores in an environment where they were absent for decades are examples.

“This group has been talking and talking for years,” she said. “We wanted to put together a proposal to explore how multiple sources of stress interact with each other and affect humans and wildlife trying to make a living.”

She said the integrated approach aims in part to benefit ranchers, land and wildlife managers as they make decisions. For example, findings may result in a more thorough understanding where predators are and how they move, and the amount of forage available to livestock, deer and elk.

“Something we’re going to try to do is produce a mobile app that produces a forecast of key rangeland conditions,” Gilbert said.

It would build on existing applications by linking satellite data to wildlife images on the cameras. Ideally, she said, it would help forecast forage supply, greenness and competition — and possibly concentration of predators, livestock and other animals in riparian areas in drought conditions.

Gilbert said this year’s work will include holding workshops with ranchers.

“The ranchers are going to be the ones who know the information they need,” she said. “Those concerns are going to be really important.”

Cameras will be placed in late spring and early summer. Sites will be selected based in part on different levels of drought and wolf activity, Gilbert said.

“We’ll look at the interactions between wolves and drought, and how those affect wild ungulate populations as well as livestock and people who live there.”

—Lead investigator Sophie Gilbert, a UI assistant professor of wildlife ecology and management