Wolf Nation: From the Brink of Oblivion and Back Again?
by Jim Robertson

If any living being personifies the untamed wilderness, it’s the wolf.

Having little patience or tolerance for the human world, wolves are a sure sign of an ecosystem intact. Man’s efforts, both historic and current, to rid the world of his best friend’s canine cousins, are part of a grand design to dominate wild lands and control Mother Nature.

For hundreds of thousands of years wolves played a central role as keepers of the American landscape, until Manifest Destiny spelled doom for them and for countless other native species. Lately wolves have enjoyed a brief reprieve, thanks to protections afforded under the Endangered Species Act and their reintroduction to parts of the Rocky mountains, allowing nature to reign once more over some of her sovereign lands.

But the return of the ‘big bad’ wolf strikes terror in the hearts of little red-state, redneck riding hoods, who habitually hate what they fear. Wolves have long been the object of unwarranted phobias. Today’s wolf-haters panic at the thought of natural predators competing for ‘their trophy game’ animals and detest anything that might threaten their exploitive lifestyle.

Anti-wolf extremists see the federal government as the enemy in their ongoing combat against wilderness and are grasping for local control of species like wolves and grizzlies, who, until recently, were all but extinct in the continental U.S. Far from being their foe however, the current administration is actually a fervent ally. Bigotry against wolves has thrived across the country since colonial times, and the Bush Administration’s policy to remove them from the Endangered Species List--long before they are truly recovered--fits right in with that centuries-old historic norm.

In 1630, Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, known for Thanksgiving Day celebrations and the Salem witch hunts, felt biblically impelled and duty-bound to “subdue the Earth.” Hence, they were the first to implement a bounty on wolves, later sweetening the pot for neighboring Indians by offering three quarts of wine or a bushel of corn for every wolf killed.

Puritan leaders wanted their settlement to be known as a “City upon a hill”--a shining example for the others to follow. The rest of the colonies may not have thought much of the Puritan paradigm, but they cheerfully followed the example of setting a bounty on wolves.

In 1756, founding father and second U.S. president, John Adams, expressed his scorn for the unspoiled world his ancestors sought to transform:

“Then, the whole continent was one continued dismal wilderness, the haunt of wolves and bears…Then our rivers flowed through gloomy deserts and offensive swamps.”

Unfortunately for the rest of life on Earth, man’s unalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was specific first only to white males, next, to all males and then, to all humans, but as yet does not extend to the other intelligent creatures with whom we share the planet.

The systematic genocide of wolves spread west with the ‘settling’ of the land. In 1818, Ohio declared a “War of Extermination” against wolves and bears. Iowa began their wolf bounty in 1858, and in 1865 and 1869 Wisconsin and Colorado followed suit. Throughout the American west, wolves were trapped, poisoned, shot, and snared to extinction. As beaver grew scarce due to widespread trapping, demand for wolf pelts increased. “Wolfers” began slaughtering bison and elk as bait, poisoning the meat in hopes of attracting unsuspecting wolves. By the 1870s, 100,000 wolves were murdered annually.

In 1872 President Roosevelt created Yellowstone National Park, partly to protect animals from wanton destruction. But trigger-happy Teddy showed his true stripes by disparaging wolves as beasts of “waste and desolation.”

Wyoming enacted a bounty on wolves in 1875 and in 1913, set a penalty of $300 for freeing a wolf from a trap. Anti-wolf edicts were enacted at the state level--with the full blessing of the U.S. government--since wildlife were, and still are, considered state ‘property.’ But in 1915 federal authorities began a poisoning program of their own that would finish off most of the country’s few remaining wolves--including those in Yellowstone.
By 1926 wolves were extinct in America’s first national park.

Pioneering ecologist Aldo Leopold’s understanding of the value of wolves came too late for one wolf family. In his enduring 1949 book, “A Sand County Almanac,” published shortly after his death, he wrote:

“We saw what we thought was a doe fording the torrent, her breast awash in white water. When she climbed the bank toward us and shook out her tail, we realized our error: it was a wolf. A half-dozen others, evidently grown pups, sprang from the willows and all joined in a welcoming melee of wagging tails and playful maulings. What was literally a pile of wolves writhed and tumbled in the center of an open flat at the foot of our rimrock.

“In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf. In a second we were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy…When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down, and a pup was dragging a leg into impassable side-rocks. 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 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.”

Leopold opened the door for others who began to appreciate wolves for who they really are. As naturalist Farley Mowat, author of the 1963 classic, “Never Cry Wolf,” observed:

"We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be -- the mythological epitome of a savage, ruthless killer -- which is, in reality, no more than the reflected image of ourself."

Reintroduction and a ban on hunting mandated by the ESA have allowed wolves to regain a few of their old territories in the west, including Yellowstone and wilderness areas in Central Idaho. Yet many have not received them with open arms, but rather, with loaded arms--hoping to turn the clock back to the dark ages of centuries past. Despite remarkable advancements in understanding of their social behavior and necessary place in a healthy ecosystem, some have no more appreciation for wolves than those who caused their extinction. The posture they assume on the subject of wolves is as warped and ill-informed as any Massachusetts witch hunter.

The Idaho Anti-wolf Coalition, backed by the local trophy elk-hunting industry, filed an initiative petition for the 2008 ballot to remove ALL wolves from their state “by whatever means necessary.” Their governor openly boasts that he’ll be the first to shoot one when wolves lose federal protection.

Unprotected wolves in Wyoming would be shot on sight anywhere outside the national park, allegedly to safeguard range cattle (who are actually 147 times more likely to fall prey to intestinal parasites than to wolves).

Meanwhile, “Wise Use” counties across the nation have enacted anti-wolf legislation, calling wolves an “unacceptable species” and barring the “presence or reintroduction of wolves.” The Bush administration’s plan to de-list this tormented species plays right into the hands of these fanatics and would clear the path for the bloodiest butchery of wolves in decades.

President Bush’s anti-environmental stance mirrors that of Ronald Reagan who proclaimed, “If you’ve seen one redwood, you’ve seen them all.” By declaring a species “recovered” when they are still extinct over most of their former range, the Bushies are essentially saying, “If you’ve seen one wolf, you’ve seen them all.” But one token, drive-though redwood tree does not equal a forest, and one wolf (or even a few hundred) does not constitute a viable population. A few isolated packs--left in the hands of hostile states--are by no means in the clear, especially considering the combined threats of habitat fragmentation, oil and gas exploration, and changes, such as prolonged drought, brought on by global warming.

Since their reintroduction to the tri-state area of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, the wolf population has fluctuated, reaching a high of 835 individuals in 2004. An impressive figure perhaps, but not when compared to the 5,450 wolves killed in 1884 in Montana alone, after the first wolf bounty was instated there. At that rate of killing, it would take less than two months for today’s anti-wolf bigots to send this misunderstood embodiment of wilderness back to the brink of oblivion.

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Printed in the Spring 2007 issue of Animals Voice magazine.