Fringe groups and an apathetic public endanger wolves

I am conflicted over the very complex and controversial wolf issue in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. I am writing this on Father’s Day 2012 as I have no human children, nor any other human family, so the wildlife are my family and children.

I moved near Glacier National Park 10 years ago after a big cities career in aerospace engineering and computer sciences and settled on a little homestead ranch at the fringe of the wilderness and I have never been bothered by wolves. I had a lone wolf quietly lope right past me from behind, before I knew it was there, without paying me any mind, right on my front lawn. I watched from my window as a lone wolf tracked two stray dogs in deep snow along the creek running through my property.

While using a chain saw to remove a fallen tree right next to my house, a wolf silently tread past me without me seeing or hearing it, leaving its distinctive paw tracks in the snow within three feet of me. My distant neighbors informed me that they see a pack of three wolves running through my place periodically, although I have many more bears and lions and moose on my place than wolves. I have even slept in pup tents in the Kootenai National Forest while collecting bear hairs for DNA analysis and heard wolves howling all night and they were not a threat.

The point is that when I moved onto this little ranch with a creek running through it, near Glacier National Park and the Great Bear Wilderness Area, in a canyon along the scenic Flathead River corridor, I had decided to share this place with all of the wildlife that got here before me. For whatever reason, wolves (wildlife) do not fear me as they “read” my body language and “sense” my emitted energy field and determine I am no threat to them. Similarly, I trust them to not want to harm me as I walk on my forested ranch unarmed doing chores, since us humans are not programmed as prey animals in the DNA of wolves.

Now, I did have two pet outdoor cats that I knew were targets of predatory animals, and I was devastated to lose one to a cougar last summer. The remaining pet cat is still traumatized to this day and must now be locked up in the garage for safety when I am not around to guard her outdoors.

I do not fear going out into the darkness at night as I share this land with the wildlife. But I do recognize that some other people do fear wolves, much like they fear snakes and spiders and bears, and that fear of wolves, while perhaps buried in their subconscious minds, is very real to them and results in them using guns to protect themselves. And that real fear they suffer from is why I am conflicted about what to do to resolve the wolf issue.

While attending U.S. Congressman Denny Rehberg’s “listening” session at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell on Oct. 6, 2010, on the subject of wolves, I couldn’t escape noticing that of the dozen or so formal organizational leaders he had sharing the podium with him, every one of them represented a group that wants to take the authority away from the federal government to “manage” wolves and wants to give that “control” to the individual states.

No environmental groups defending wolves were present on the podium to participate in that discussion. Only three or four people from the audience dared to speak up to defend wolves against being hunted as a control measure at this listening session of 300-plus audience attendees. Rehberg only attracted a conservative audience of hunters and ranchers and outfitters and trappers who shared his view. A mixed audience and panelists including more environmentalists would have been more effective in coming up with compromise solutions.

It was interesting and enlightening to hear a multitude of people explain why they hate wolves so much. I think I can empathize with them now, and I could probably vote to manage the wolf population if the techniques of doing that were based on honest, professional, wildlife biology concepts of keeping the wildlife ecosystem in balance.

Only one time has a wolf killing and eating a human in America ever been recorded, in the late 1880s. It was a weak, diseased wolf who was shunned by the pack and could no longer hunt its normal prey to survive. But people are still going to fear wolves so this issue must be resolved. Remember, fear is the most powerful emotion in all animals, humans included. It is called the “fight or flight” syndrome.

Having lived all over America while being a tourist visitor to Montana to view wildlife in Glacier National Park, until finally moving here, I consider the Montana tourism industry to be best served with the federal government being the stewards of public lands, such as national forests and national parks and designated wilderness areas and Bureau of Land Management lands, and the management of its wildlife.

Farming and ranching livestock needs (even though beef is a known carcinogen and more cattle die from injuries and disease than from wolf predation) and absolutely those of residential city neighborhoods are best served with the state of Montana managing wolves on private lands. Some ranches consist of both private and public lands, a dilemma.

All management should be under the auspices of the Endangered Species Act. That would be a compromise position that might end the polarization and be acceptable to both sides of the issue. It is certainly preferable to having Montana Administrative Rules and state laws replace federal regulations, and “excluding these rules/laws from judicial review.”

However, the heinous practice of trapping is unacceptable to me. The unconscionable practice of trapping animals and killing them and marketing their fur for profit must stop. It is time for the ancient Neanderthal mind to evolve into modern day man. Get a real job. Trapping wolves in order to kill them and reduce their population is inexcusable as well. It is cruel punishment.

If the number of wolves estimated by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks were not so ridiculously inflated, the hunters would, in fact, be harvesting a much higher percentage of the actual number of wolves and both groups would be happier.

The phony excuse that deer and elk herds are in decline with limited numbers available to hunters to kill is simply not true. They are currently on the rise. Wolves merely keep ungulates on the move, and that makes it apparently too challenging for hunters to find them to get a shot at them, like they did in the past from their parked trucks along forest roads. Today it is too much walking, hiking, backpacking and exercise for most modern-day, out-of-shape hunters, so let’s allow trappers to get the allotment of wolves. I think not.

The fact that wolves keep elk on the move has many significant, important ramifications: (1) When elk are allowed to stay around stands of aspen trees and over-browse them, it kills the aspen. (2) Certain types of birds live only in live aspen, and it is those birds that feed on beetles in nearby pine trees, keeping those pine trees alive if the nearby aspen can house those birds. (3) Dead pine tree stands from beetle kill produce perfect kindling for forest fires to proliferate into raging wildfires. (4) Therefore, wolves reduce the danger of wildfires by keeping elk on the move so aspen don’t die out, and pine trees stay alive. Get it? Hunters don’t get it, only biologists get it.

Another phony excuse is that wolves kill too many livestock. But coyotes, domestic dogs and mountain lions take many more than wolves do. So why trap wolves?

Former attempts to stop trapping has resulted in no success whatsoever, as a pathetically apathetic public has not responded to defeat the organized forces of the fringe minority trapping group. A mere 22,000 Montanans once stepped up to sign a petition to end trapping via a ballot initiative, and so the initiative failed for a lack of enough valid signatures to get on the ballot.

In the meantime, trappers continue to mistakenly trap more of peoples’ pet dogs and cats and children than wolves. FWP does not punish trappers, but does punish the general public if anyone removes a trap in order to protect their children and pets. Can you believe it?

Attempts to save wildlife through the administration of the Endangered Species Act are similarly facing opposition by small, very vocal, fringe groups that are well-financed.

It is hard to place all blame on the trappers who are a small minority since the larger majority of apathetic people are not actively opposing them. Perhaps also fear driven? Fear of losing one’s job or having one’s children bullied at school?

My real aggravation is with FWP since they do not allow environmentalists on their Citizens Advisory Committee but reserve those seats only for hunters, trappers, outfitters, and ranchers/farmers. I have offered to serve on that committee, as have other environmentalists, and have been turned down. Environmentalists are the only defenders and representatives of the wolf, which is very intelligent and possesses a high, advanced social order. Wildlife constitutes living, breathing animals and should not be dismissed as merely resources to harvest at human’s pleasure.

The filing of this electronic comment is supposed to be on the FWP “Opportunity for Public Comment “on the “Hunting home page” at the www.fwp.mt.gov Web site. I wonder if my environmentalist comments will be read and considered of value. The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bias is unconscionable.

Bill Baum lives in Martin City. This column was submitted to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks as a comment on proposed wolf hunting regulations.