Robert Goldman: Of wolves, ecology and justice
The paw print was almost the size of my hand. I knelt down to study it and with my fingertips traced the outline of the print, the pads, the subtle punctuation of its nails, and pondered the animal that left it.
I was on the fourth day of a six-day backpack in Northern Yellowstone and this was the territory of the Blacktail Pack. A gray wolf had passed this way not long before.
I was very happy to see this paw print. As a lifelong lover of canines, it's easy to love wolves, especially when you know the truth about them.
The truth about wolves was difficult to find in the anti-wolf "opinion" piece that appeared in this newspaper on Sept. 25, by V. Paul Reynolds (Outdoors in Maine: Keeping Wolves from Maine's door).
What needs to be kept from Maine's door is malicious and inaccurate information about wolves that, for centuries, has resulted in the unjust demonization and heartless massacre of this vital and beautiful animal.
If I knew little or nothing about wolves and, instead, relied on fairy tales and anti-wolf propaganda, upon seeing the wolf's paw print in Yellowstone, I would have immediately fled from the trail screaming hysterically, afraid of being mercilessly attacked by an other-worldly beast or infected with some strange wolf disease.
Instead, I've taken the time to learn the truth about wolves from world renowned ecologists, wolf experts and nature writers, such as Aldo Leopold, Adolph Murie, David Mech, Farley Mowat and Barry Lopez.
Mr. Lopez's "Of Wolves and Men" is truly enlightening. Young and old will enjoy learning about wolves from Mr. Mowat's wonderful book "Never Cry Wolf."
With knowledge and wisdom, it is possible to replace the completely false, demonic image of wolves with understanding, compassion and respect for the amazing beings wolves are, in reality.Wolves are intelligent, social, natural predators and are native to New England and almost every corner of North America.
They are instinctively wary of people and avoid contact with humans.
As natural predators, they provide a vital balance to the prey species that exist in the various ecosystems they inhabit. Wolves actually strengthen their prey by culling the weak, the old and the sick.Sport hunters do exactly the opposite, as they target the bigger, healthier animals, thereby removing those animals from the gene pool.
Wolves in Maine would naturally strengthen moose and deer populations here. It is what they do as vital, natural predators in every ecosystem they inhabit.
By the early the 20th century, wolves were missing from almost every part of the United States. A relentlessly cruel campaign of poisoning, trapping, shooting and massacre, brutalized this native animal.
The centuries-long wolf massacres were perpetrated at the local, state and federal levels. It was a horrific, unjust war on wolves and nature.The mass killing of America's wolves and other native wildlife was firmly rooted in human ignorance, intolerance and cruelty.
With time, much of the country learned from its mistakes.By the early 1970s, the federal government, reflecting the will of a far more enlightened American people, enacted the Endangered Species Act. Wolves were added to the list of protected species. In the mid-1980s, a small group of pioneer wolves, on their own, wandered south into the American Rockies from Canada.
Ten years later, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service re-introduced a mere 33 wolves back into Yellowstone National Park and parts of nearby Idaho, that only served to accelerate a natural process that was already under way.
As the federal government had previously played a central role in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of wolves from coast to coast, this small but remarkable action for ecological justice and atonement was a positive reflection of maturing American attitudes toward wildlife and the natural world.
Today, many ranchers and sport hunters unfortunately continue to spread false information about wolves. They greatly exaggerate wolf depredation on cattle.
Despite the anti-wolf whining of some sport hunters out West, the facts reveal that elk populations throughout the Rocky Mountains are strong and healthy. After more than 15 years with wolves back in the Rockies, state departments of wildlife in those states report that elk populations are at or above expected levels. Elk are there across the landscape and doing well. And field biologists report that with wolves back on the land, the entire ecology is healthier.
The same ecological principles at work in the Rockies apply here in Maine. With the wolves' return to their native New England homeland, prey species and the land itself will be healthier. That is the way nature works, just as we were taught in grade school.In the vast forest lands of Maine and across the region, there is ample room and prey for wolves to live here again, as they did for thousands of years.
It is time to cast ignorance, prejudice and misperceptions about this native species aside. Wolves are vital, fascinating and worthy beings. With honesty and respect, with knowledge and a more generous sense of stewardship toward the land and all creatures, great and small, wolves can live here again, where they belong.
Robert Goldman is an independent wildlife and wilderness advocate. He lives in South Portland.
I was very happy to see this paw print. As a lifelong lover of canines, it's easy to love wolves, especially when you know the truth about them.
The truth about wolves was difficult to find in the anti-wolf "opinion" piece that appeared in this newspaper on Sept. 25, by V. Paul Reynolds (Outdoors in Maine: Keeping Wolves from Maine's door).
What needs to be kept from Maine's door is malicious and inaccurate information about wolves that, for centuries, has resulted in the unjust demonization and heartless massacre of this vital and beautiful animal.
If I knew little or nothing about wolves and, instead, relied on fairy tales and anti-wolf propaganda, upon seeing the wolf's paw print in Yellowstone, I would have immediately fled from the trail screaming hysterically, afraid of being mercilessly attacked by an other-worldly beast or infected with some strange wolf disease.
Instead, I've taken the time to learn the truth about wolves from world renowned ecologists, wolf experts and nature writers, such as Aldo Leopold, Adolph Murie, David Mech, Farley Mowat and Barry Lopez.
Mr. Lopez's "Of Wolves and Men" is truly enlightening. Young and old will enjoy learning about wolves from Mr. Mowat's wonderful book "Never Cry Wolf."
With knowledge and wisdom, it is possible to replace the completely false, demonic image of wolves with understanding, compassion and respect for the amazing beings wolves are, in reality.Wolves are intelligent, social, natural predators and are native to New England and almost every corner of North America.
They are instinctively wary of people and avoid contact with humans.
As natural predators, they provide a vital balance to the prey species that exist in the various ecosystems they inhabit. Wolves actually strengthen their prey by culling the weak, the old and the sick.Sport hunters do exactly the opposite, as they target the bigger, healthier animals, thereby removing those animals from the gene pool.
Wolves in Maine would naturally strengthen moose and deer populations here. It is what they do as vital, natural predators in every ecosystem they inhabit.
By the early the 20th century, wolves were missing from almost every part of the United States. A relentlessly cruel campaign of poisoning, trapping, shooting and massacre, brutalized this native animal.
The centuries-long wolf massacres were perpetrated at the local, state and federal levels. It was a horrific, unjust war on wolves and nature.The mass killing of America's wolves and other native wildlife was firmly rooted in human ignorance, intolerance and cruelty.
With time, much of the country learned from its mistakes.By the early 1970s, the federal government, reflecting the will of a far more enlightened American people, enacted the Endangered Species Act. Wolves were added to the list of protected species. In the mid-1980s, a small group of pioneer wolves, on their own, wandered south into the American Rockies from Canada.
Ten years later, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service re-introduced a mere 33 wolves back into Yellowstone National Park and parts of nearby Idaho, that only served to accelerate a natural process that was already under way.
As the federal government had previously played a central role in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of wolves from coast to coast, this small but remarkable action for ecological justice and atonement was a positive reflection of maturing American attitudes toward wildlife and the natural world.
Today, many ranchers and sport hunters unfortunately continue to spread false information about wolves. They greatly exaggerate wolf depredation on cattle.
Despite the anti-wolf whining of some sport hunters out West, the facts reveal that elk populations throughout the Rocky Mountains are strong and healthy. After more than 15 years with wolves back in the Rockies, state departments of wildlife in those states report that elk populations are at or above expected levels. Elk are there across the landscape and doing well. And field biologists report that with wolves back on the land, the entire ecology is healthier.
The same ecological principles at work in the Rockies apply here in Maine. With the wolves' return to their native New England homeland, prey species and the land itself will be healthier. That is the way nature works, just as we were taught in grade school.In the vast forest lands of Maine and across the region, there is ample room and prey for wolves to live here again, as they did for thousands of years.
It is time to cast ignorance, prejudice and misperceptions about this native species aside. Wolves are vital, fascinating and worthy beings. With honesty and respect, with knowledge and a more generous sense of stewardship toward the land and all creatures, great and small, wolves can live here again, where they belong.
Robert Goldman is an independent wildlife and wilderness advocate. He lives in South Portland.
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