Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Lords of Nature

So last night I was channel surfing.  I always check out PBS and see what's on.  Last night they had on a documentary called Lords of Nature:  Life in a Land of Great Predators (http://lordsofnature.org/).  Am I ever glad I put down the remote and perched to watch this one.  

The gist of the show was to demonstrate that an ecosystem containing its top predators is healthier than one without.  The researchers did a great job of documenting how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone has kept the elk population in check as expected.  And that has allowed willows and aspen saplings to survive that the elk had grazed to the ground for the last 70 years.  These trees in turn support an active beaver population which in turn promotes increases in plant, fish, reptile and amphibian diversity.  The photographic evidence was startling, and to me at least unexpected.  I knew the wolves belonged there and the idea of packs roaming free there made my heart happy.  But I never imagined that they would also bring back the vitality of so many species that are seemingly unlinked to them.  

And not just the wolves.  In Canyonland NP the top predator is the mountain lion.  In areas where they have been eliminated, the mule deers overgraze the land and the ecosystem suffers.  In areas with mountain lions, the mule deer are kept in check and the balance is better.  Similar effects have been observed around the world in areas where mankind has removed the top predators.  

The wolves have been de-listed which means they can be legally hunted.  Right now some of those Western states are trying to figure out whether they will hunt wolves again this year (a thought that breaks my heart).  Ranchers are reluctant to change the way that they graze their animals on public land that we collectively own - all of us.  They want to continue to kill any and all wolves they see near their livestock.  They argue loudly for a wolf hunting season.  Don't I get a say in how they operate on land that I own?   An open wolf hunt doesn't care about pack sustainability.  It isn't done in a way that culls the old or weak.  It is about trophy taking the biggest and best.  Taking the leaders just as the pack enters the hard winter season.   

The documentary does a great job of showing that it IS possible for ranchers to co-exist with the wolves by changing OUR behavior.  Yunno us?  The ones with the big brains?  In Northern Minnesota the wolves have never been exterminated.  When the wolves were listed as endangered the ranchers could no longer kill them.  Instead, they adapted how they ranch, sometimes very simple adaptations like when they feed, and the wolf kills in their livestock plummeted.  Problem wolves are killed by a game officer.  They are not shot on sight by ranchers.  They are not hunted for fun.  

So why do I give a shit?  That's a tough question.  I have heard the wolves howl in the North Woods and it was exhilarating.  Everyone should have the opportunity to hear it just once.  Some would say 'But I can see them at the zoo'.  I will not argue that.  Those wolves are a great educational opportunity for those of us who do not live in an area where we can experience them.  But they do not belong in their little penned up area.  Seeing them there does not compare with the visceral thrill of hearing them when you are in their space.  To feel that little shiver and know that they are out there.  

I will leave you with one of my favorite passages from Aldo Leopold -

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

I agree with the mountain.  Now is the time for us to DO something.  Please write your congressman or one of the Montana congressmen and tell them that we do NOT WANT this wolf hunt perpetuated again this year.   That we have learned from the wolf and from the mountain.  We are a healthier world with them in it.  They belong here.  

3 comments:

  1. Thank you.

    Got to hear one of them down a long valley last weekend. I was standing on top of a mtn. north of Polebridge. 360 degrees of no visible roads or houses. And then the howling began and resonated and cascaded all down the valley below and up the sides of the valley to reach us at the mtn. top where we were eating lunch with three human 'pups'. And the green fire was fully lit. & as always their numbers don't matter to me, but each of their particulars do. That particular howl and the why behind it, that particular wolf getting to stand in that valley and open its particular mouth, reaching our particular ears matters immensely to me. & i'm all for the willow and aspen saplings shading those river basins again too--i like those kind of numbers. I like the ranger that gave a fireside talk about it last year when we were in Yellowstone. and i liked how he repeated 'everything's connected to everything else' close to forty-eight times in one hour. And I like that a girl in Kentucky gives a rat's ass too!

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  2. And one old man in Florida! I have believed my whole life that it is a shame that we, as a species, with our big brains,that we don't understand worth a crap, fear something that has never harmed humans. Maybe our "best friends", dogs, but it is the competition they provide and their skill and excellence at what they do so far exceeds our own that is the source of that fear. They are what humans really want to be in our hearts, effective, efficient, frugal and selfless hunters.
    I hope, one day, before I leave this place to hear and see them wild as both of you have.

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  3. Thank you Sabine for always reminding me that there are things that matter greatly to me that I see only rarely. Duz and I were able to see both griz and wolf tracks in the snow by Polebridge the last winter I was out. It was a spectacular thing. The griz tracking the wolves tracking their prey.

    And Skip - I hope you hear them too. BTW - old man my ass!

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