A Yellowstone Wolf-Watching Guide Wonders Aloud: What Century Are We Living In?

It is time to put gray wolves back on the federal endangered list. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has the power to re-list wolves, which she must do before Montana and Idaho wipe them out and erase 25 years of conservation and success. This is an emergency.

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Just writing to say Amen to Phil's thoughts so well expressed in his article. Thank you for nailing the subject so well and truthfully.

—Carolyn Hopper in Bozeman, Montana




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I am writing from Australia, absolutely bewildered by the campaign to legalize the killing of wolves. Have these regulatory agencies not heard of the great Aldo Leopold and "Thinking Like a Mountain"? Leopold's text is a must read for those blindly killing off wolf communities. " I have seen state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn … In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-lined junipers … So also with cows. The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf’s job of trimming the herd to fit the change. He has not learned to think like a mountain. Hence we have dustbowls, and rivers washing the future into the sea."

—Terry Muir in New South Wales, Australia.  Note to Terry:  Leopold's thinking is also noted in a recent Mountain Journal profile about biologist Mike Phillips being given The Aldo Leopold Memorial Award by The Wildlife Society and it is featured in an interview MoJo conducted with Leopold scholar Curt Meine on the 70th anniversary of the publishing of A Sand County Almanac.

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Reading Phil Knight’s article on proposed wolf population management policies in Idaho and Montana I couldn’t help but feel like he was intentionally obfuscating the complex nature of predator population management in favor of salacious, click bait lines like “What Century is This?”  Personally, I don’t agree with the proposed regulations allowing for extensive wolf hunting and trapping, and I agree with his basic premise that wolves are not the biggest threat to ranchers or sportsmen. However, his characterization of the issue was incredibly disingenuous in that he completely elides the very real consequences and complications that come with coexisting alongside a large predator species like wolves. I think the story of African wildlife management with regard to elephants, lions and other large, dangerous and potentially destructive animals is illustrative. In areas without significant private funding for exclusive wildlife use (no farming, ranching, or people living on the land) large game populations, and particularly those of elephants and lions, are in dire straits. The most successful conservation tactic outside of simply buying private conservation preserves has been something similar to the North American Wildlife Management Model where animals are essentially monetized and populations are regulated by hunting and trapping to fit within levels of acceptable human/wildlife conflict. Lest we Americans simply think ourselves morally superior to the African farmers who poison or shoot elephants and lions to protect livestock and crops, it is worth remembering that large predators have been extirpated from essentially every single part of the United States where they previously came into significant contact with human beings. Furthermore, every single state currently regulates a variety of animal populations via lethal control methods because the consequences or unregulated deer, beaver, varmints, coyotes etc., are problematic to our current ways of life. We can and should have a conversation about how to better integrate human occupied lands with the natural environment, but no sane wildlife biologist would recommend trying to reintroduce wolves or grizzlies across most of their original range because the level of wildlife/human conflict would make the situation entirely untenable. The same goes for something like banning deer hunting- the eastern whitetail population would entirely decimate the land in a matter of years and no suburbanite actually has any interest in allowing wolf packs to run down and kill deer (the way nature intended population management) amidst the sidewalks and fenced backyards of their neighborhood.  

Should we have a more circumspect and thoughtful conversation around how to preserve wild places that currently exist and allow predators like wolves to flourish in those places? Absolutely, yes we should. But puff-piece articles like this that present the issue in the narrowest and most intellectually dishonest way possible do nothing to help the imperiled wolf population and actively generate resentment and reactivity from the people on the ground who actually have to deal with and manage the complications arising from the burgeoning wolf population. This article didn’t meet the high standards of investigative, thoughtful journalism that MoJo typically publishes and I think if people really care about this issue everyone would be much better served by engaging in a real discussion of the complexities and trade offs created by the decision to reintroduce wolves and continue to allow their geographic expansion. Phil’s article castigating hunters as evil villains who delight in cruelty or ranchers as greedy, thoughtless freeloaders misses the boat, sows resentment, and does absolutely nothing but rile up people up without offering any functional solutions.

—Michael Veasey

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Just a note of support for Phil Knight's article about MT and ID's ridiculous campaigns to exterminate wolves. Phil is right on. I do question one statement Phil made however: "And trapping is now legal on your private land even if you do not give permission. " Is this really true? I find that hard to believe, but—then again—much of what has unfolded is hard to believe. Thanks for your thoughtful stories and work on behalf of our wild world.

—Beth Madden in Montana  Note to Beth: You are right. The statement in Knight's piece that wolf trapping can occur on private property on Montana without the landowner's permission is in error.  Such trespassing is illegal.