“From the time we started doing that in 2007 up to now, we’ve had zero wolf depredations,” Dobson said, sitting at the kitchen table of his family’s spacious log home on a private inholding surrounded by the Apache National Forest. “I think the fence has a lot to do with it.”

A few miles away, rancher Sydney Maddock and Eddie Lee, her ranch manager, have hired a range rider — a cowboy or cowgirl who monitors the herd — to make sure her cattle stay safe. They have also started allowing calves to grow bigger before turning them out onto their federal grazing allotment so that they are less vulnerable to depredation.