The vast country in Eastern Arizona is one of the reasons rancher Tom Paterson says it's so difficult to find his cows that may have been attacked by Mexican Gray Wolves.
"If we do find that cow, it has to be a relatively fresh kill," he said.
Fresh wolf kills are more likely to be confirmed by investigators with USDA Wildlife Services.
That confirmation allows ranchers to be paid when their livestock is killed.
Paterson said some form of a compensation program has been around for nearly 20 years, but he is convinced, "they're going to change the rules so that there'll be more probable kills. A lot fewer confirmed kills."
Confirming a kill triggers an investigation to find the wolf responsible which could lead to relocation or lethal removal.
RELATED: Watch part one of this investigative story online here
Paterson and other ranchers believe there is political pressure to stop the practice by changing criteria to make wolf kills harder to prove and resulting in a reduction of confirmations.
USDA Wildlife Services investigates reports of depredations and sets the rules for confirmation. According to the agency, since 1998, it has confirmed 1,157 wolf kills and/or attacks on livestock.
ABC15 asked Western Regional Director Keith Wehner if there was a belief within the agency that there are too many wolf kills being confirmed.
"I wouldn't say that necessarily," he said.
Over a five-year period, Wehner said that wolf removals "went from pretty regular lethal removal of wolves to almost no lethal removal of wolves."
When Wehner inquired why he said he was told, "the investigations aren't as clean as they should be."
He said that the goal of the changes isn't to reduce the number of confirmed kills but to better justify why they are confirmed.
"And make sure that when somebody who doesn't trust Wildlife Service's investigations comes and looks at those they can say clearly, 'okay, that's there's obvious evidence of a wolf kill here.'"
ABC15 asked who does not trust the agency.
"There's a whole group of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) that generally don't trust Wildlife Services," he said. "A lot of it's a philosophical difference, in wildlife management."
Wild Earth Guardians counts itself as one of the groups that does not trust the investigations according to wolf advocate Chris Smith.
The group has sued the federal government several times for stronger wolf protections in its quest to see Mexican Gray Wolves restored throughout their historical range from Western New Mexico to the Southern Rockies.
"Subpopulations should be at least 750 wolves," he told ABC15. "That's what scientists say indicates full recovery of the species. So that's our end game."
He said the group mistrusts the USDA Wildlife Services investigations because it "works on behalf of the livestock industry" and has "an inherent conflict of interest when investigating livestock losses."
Smith points to a May 2022 report from the Intercept that highlights a whistleblower who claimed some in the agency were "erroneously confirming wolf kills."
Smith said the agency and the ranchers have a duty to reduce interaction between livestock and wolves to prevent depredations.
"That includes, you know, removing carcasses, putting up fences, putting up fladry (fencing) when necessary, being a real cowboy out on the range, when necessary," he said.
Ranchers say they have prevention measures in place.
Ranchers like Carey Dobson say he and his workers sometimes camp in their pastures for days at a time to keep wolves from their cattle. He says even current compensation doesn't begin to cover the amount of money ranchers are losing due to wolf presence alone.
"For all the animals we don't find, for all the moves we have to do, the hay we have to bring in, the water we have to haul when we have to move out of pastures. There's just so much to it," Dobson said.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department which heads up the wolf recovery program for the state deploys helicopters and range riders to push the wolves back into the forest.
About half the wolves have GPS collars but ranchers are not allowed real-time access to that information, something Paterson believes could help prevent some livestock deaths.
"We can tell where the wolves are in our pastures, we can send someone out to haze the wolf away, or to find the kills," he said.
While the ranchers gear up to fight the changes Paterson says they are doing what they can to mitigate their losses.
