TUCSON
— IN December 2011, a wild gray wolf set foot in California, the first
sighting in almost a century. He’d wandered in from Oregon, looking for a
mate. In October 2014, for the first time in almost three-quarters of a
century, a gray wolf was seen loping along the forested North Rim of
the Grand Canyon, in Arizona. She had walked hundreds of miles, probably
from Wyoming or Idaho.
The
return of these animals to the homes of their ancestors — however
fleeting — was a result of their 40-year protection under the Endangered
Species Act.
OR-7,
or “Journey,” as schoolchildren named the first wolf, had been born to
the Imnaha pack, the first one in Oregon for many decades. When he
wandered south, his brother, OR-9, wandered east. Shortly after he
crossed into Idaho (where wolves are not protected), he was shot dead.
OR-7 lived on, after his repeated incursions into California (where
wolves are protected), to sire a litter of pups just north of the state
line. He became the subject of a documentary — in California, even a wolf can be a star.
The story of the Grand Canyon wolf, though, may be over: Three days after Christmas, it appears, she was shot and killed in Utah by a man media outlets have called a “coyote hunter.” (A DNA test is pending.)
For
almost two centuries, American gray wolves, vilified in fact as well as
fiction, were the victims of vicious government extermination programs.
By the time the Endangered Species Act was passed, in 1973, only a few
hundred of these once-great predators were left in the lower 48 states.
After numerous generations of people dedicated to killing wolves on the
North American continent, one generation devoted itself to letting
wolves live. The animals’ number has now risen to almost 5,500, thanks
to their legal protection, but they still occupy less than 5 percent of
their ancient home range.
Since
1995, the act has guided efforts to raise wolves in captivity, release
them, and follow them in the wild. Twenty years ago this month, the
first gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.
But
this fragile progress has been undermined. Since 2011, the federal
government has moved to remove federal protection for gray wolves in the
Northern Rocky Mountains (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming) and in the
western Great Lakes (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan), the two
population centers. Management of the species was turned over to these
states, which responded with a zeal that looks like blood lust.
Relying
on the greatly exaggerated excuse that wolves threaten cattle and
sheep, the states opened their doors to the killing of wolves. (In some
states, bait can be used to lure the animals to their deaths; in
Montana, private landowners can each kill 100 wolves each year; in
Wisconsin, up to six hunting dogs on a single wolf is considered fair
play.) Legions of wolf killers rose to the challenge, and the toll has
been devastating: In just three and a half years, at least 3,500 wolves
have been mowed down.
There’s
been an outcry from conservationists, ecologists and people who simply
like wolves, but this has not stopped the killers. Some say wolves are a
threat to their livestock investments (despite the existence of
generous rancher-compensation programs in all wolf states save Alaska);
others invoke fear of wolves; still others appear to revel in killing.
Online, you can find pictures of wolf carcasses held up proudly as
trophies and men boasting of running over wolves with their cars. Judges
have started to step in. In September, a federal court decided that
wolf management in Wyoming — which had allowed people to kill as many
wolves as they wanted, throughout 84 percent of the state — should be
returned to the federal government. In December, also in response to a
lawsuit, another federal court reinstated protections for wolves in the
western Great Lakes. These decisions should make clear that the states
alone simply can’t be entrusted with the future of our wolves.
In
Washington, the threats persist. The Fish and Wildlife Service is
considering a proposal that would strip federal protection from almost
all gray wolves in the lower 48 states, not just the ones in the Rockies
and the Midwest. Meanwhile, right-wing Republicans in the new Congress
are champing at the bit to remove the wolves from protection under the act — politics trumping science.
President
Obama should direct the Fish and Wildlife Service to retain protection
for wolves; if it doesn’t, they could be wiped off the face of the
American landscape forever. A unified wolf-recovery plan for the nation
is required. Not only do wolves play an important role in keeping
wilderness wild, but they were here long before we were, and deserve to
remain. Not for nothing was the environmentalist Aldo Leopold
transformed by the sight of a “fierce green fire” in a dying wolf’s
eyes.
I’ve
seen wild gray wolves only once, as they trotted across a dirt road in
front of my own family car in a New Mexican forest. There were three of
them on the road, no doubt a wolf family, and three of us in the car: my
husband, my daughter and me. In the back seat, my little girl was
engrossed in a picture book and didn’t look up fast enough. I want her
to have another chance; I want her to keep living in a world where
something beautiful and wild lurks at the edge of sight.
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