Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
Washington State’s move to extirpate an entire pack of wolves near the Canadian border for the infraction of killing a few alien domestic cattle grazing public lands is reprehensible. That wildlife agencies would kill any wolves to benefit the profit margin of private businesses utilizing public resources is an outrage. George Wuerthner writes how the tragedy of this slaughter of wild predators repeats itself over and over throughout the West.
Reviled by ranchers and hunters, managed through “harvesting” by state wildlife agencies, with ardent conservationists its last hope, the gray wolf has cut a controversial wake in the North American landscape ever since it was reintroduced from Canada in 1995. Watch the film on Earth Focus.
Politics, not sound wolf scientific research, has influenced the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s efforts toward removing gray wolves across the country from the protection of the Endangered Species Act. Jay Mallonee, researcher from Wolf & Wildlife Studies, has found that left alone, wolves regulate their own populations with highly sophisticated social interactions within the pack. Unfortunately, the hunting and ranching lobbies don’t support the theory we should learn to live with top predators as a necessity for ecosystem health.
Western environmental groups oppose the anti-scientific “political” Endangered Species delisting of gray wolves across the U.S. by Fish and Wildlife Service. Reduced wolf numbers will reduce positive ecological effects of these top predators and permit barbaric hunting methods.
Since the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the people of the United States have worked to tame the Bitteroot Mountains of Idaho and Montana, but the rushing rivers and wandering wolves still retain the air of the wild.
After centuries of fear and superstition, research has given the wolf a new image as a social creature with an indispensible role in ecosystems. Unfortunately, wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains have been removed from the endangered species list. The Druid Pack of Yellowstone National Park symbolizes the rise and fall of this much maligned predator.
Montana and Idaho wildlife officials are seeking to resume “conservation hunt” alternatives on the gray wolves despite the packs being relisted for protections under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).