Wolves and some food for thought
Regarding an article in the April 20 Hungry Horse News about the delisting of the gray wolf from being "endangered." Caused this writer to comment on the words of one Suzanne Stone, a Northern Rockies representative for The Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group.
She said, "Congress is trying to force this through on a moment of incredible desperation." And for what? "To appease a tiny group of the most radical hunters and ranchers who want to get rid of the wolves entirely." I took offense to this last sentence. This is not a "tiny group." They are not "radical" but highly concerned citizens.
Delisting the wolf from "endangered" puts it in the next lesser priority category of the act, which is "threatened." To explain categories, I offer the Endangered Species Act's definitions.
"Endangered" is explained to mean, "A species that is in imminent danger of extinction throughout their range and are listed by state or federal legislation."
"Threatened" is explained to say, "A species that may become endangered within the foreseeable future without some conservation measures."
"Threatened" is where the wolf belonged to begin with. They were wrongly classified by over zealous activists through the threat of federal legal action as "endangered" and got legislatively "listed" without public comment as a federal program in the 1980s.
The wolf never was imminently in danger of extinction - we had plenty of them, with small populations in the Lower 48, and many in Canada, the Northwest Territories and Alaska. We had ample viable populations then. Now we have tons of them in North America, with major populations in Montana and Idaho, and increasing in nearby states.
As for The Defenders of Wildlife, their title is contradictory and conflicts with their cause. If you consider the major food prey of the gray wolf being elk, deer and other wildlife (including domestic stock), with major attacks leveled at the young of the year (calves, fawns, lambs and colts), what really needs defending, the wolf or the food prey?
It's akin to opening up our prisons and letting all the felons escape. Why not have The Defenders of Wildlife pick a non-carnivorous predatory specie that is truly endangered, like the mountain caribou?
The wolf was once considered an unnecessary carnivorous aggressive pack predator that conflicted with our society, was once shot on sight and had a bounty on its head, hence its small populations in the Lower 48.
Activists such as Suzanne Stone are well meaning but misguided. They broke their promises of "minimum controlled populations of mating pairs and total population numbers" to hunters and ranchers, and have over stepped their bounds by using the threat of legal action against the populace and administration under the protections of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Endangered Species Act.
A.G. "Jerry" Jackson lives in Columbia Falls.