a real tirade about how bad they were because they disburbed the 

 animals on the winter range. With that kind of thinking, we're off in 

 an area that makes it pretty hard for people to believe us. I had 

 arttther biologists walk into my office when we had a coyote predation 

 on domestic sheep study going and the first thesis had just hit the 

 press. This fellow came in just madder than hops. He said, "When I 

 was going to school with you I thought you were a pretty smart guy. 

 But you're out there now telling people just what the ranchers want to 

 hear and what I've been telling the ranchers is they don't know what 

 they're saying." And I asked him why he was so excited about it and 

 he said, "Well, by golly, over in eastern Montana where I am we really 

 need the coyotes." And I said, "What do you need them for so bad?" 

 I was kind of baiting here a little. "Well," he said, "they're really 

 good on predator and rabbit control. Without them we're going to have 

 a lot of rodent and rabbit problems." And he says, "Another thing 

 they're really great for is the game birds. Game birds are coming back 

 now that we've got coyotes." I said, "How do you account for that"? 

 He said, "Well, I think it's a case of coyotes are out there catching the 

 sick ones and this sort of thing, keeping the population toned up and 

 in good shape." And I asked him why they didn't do it for the rabbits 

 and rodents and he got mad and walked out. So we do get into some 

 kind of silly things in this and it's just too bad we can't get on a 

 common ground because the landowner, the livestock operators and the 

 environmentalists and the biologists should be working together. And 

 of all things to split us apart, this predator thing is a very emotional 

 issue. 



Now, I have a disadvantage that I haven't been that close to this 

 meeting. I had other business and just got here and I don't know how 

 other moderators have been running the program. I'm going to ask the 

 people on the panel to come up here one at a time and speak for 

 approximately 15 minutes. After that I might give a little windup. I've 

 got a double shot here. I can scoop you guys and say what you were 

 going to say and refute it afterwards. So I've got a double shot. And 

 then we'll open it to discussion and questions from the floor. 



The first speaker is Don Minnich, the Regional Director of Region 

 Six, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He has a bachelor's degree from 

 Colorado State in Wildlife Management. From 1963 to 1978 he was 

 employed by the Colorado Division of Wildlife as a wildlife conservation 

 officer, regional land manager, region game management biologist, 

 planning specialist, land use coordinator for the state, legislative liaison 

 and Chief of Planning and Budgeting. In 1974 he took a year away 

 from government to work for the Pennzoil Company as Director of Fish 

 and Wildlife for their 480,000 acre park ranch in northern New Mexico. 

 In 1978 he became Assistant Director of the Colorado Department of 

 Natural Resources and supervised the Division of Wilidlife, the Division 

 of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, the State Land Board, State Soil 

 Conservation Board and Natural Areas Program. He then became 

 Regional Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service in December of 1979. 

 Don. 



