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Defenders View: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back, Two Steps...
Arrgghh. Just as those who care about America’s wildlife were trying so desperately to look beyond the Bush administration’s grotesque conservation record, to what we hope will be a period of repairing the damage under a new president, out of the darkness it crawls once again to remind us just how truly terrible the past seven years have been. The administration’s latest target (and the word is purposefully chosen): One of America’s crowning wildlife restoration accomplishments, the successful reintroduction of wolves to the northern Rockies.
The Bush administration in February announced its plan to eliminate federal Endangered Species Act protections for all wolves in the northern Rockies. And, as the administration knows, if it succeeds with its plan, literally hundreds of these now world-famous wolves will be slaughtered.
What a wildlife conservation “about face” that would be.
Ever since wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in 1995—an event that was celebrated in newscasts around the world—serious students of conservation had come increasingly to believe the restoration of this historic symbol of wildness could herald the dawn of a new conservation ethic in this country. At last, we thought, our nation is finally putting behind it the archaic philosophy that the proper human role in nature is to dominate and subjugate everything else that is alive and wild. At last, we dared hope, the people of this country are finally demonstrating a readiness for a new conservation ethic, one based upon a more enlightened, noble and self-beneficial view of humanity’s role in nature.
Well, maybe Americans are ready for such a change. But this latest Bush administration proposal serves to remind us that few advances in civilized society ever develop in an uninterruptedly positive manner. Rather, it is often a case of two steps forward, one step back, two forward, one back, and so on.
So here we are with another step back.
What in the world are they thinking? Are they thinking? Mind you, it isn’t as though the states of Idaho and Wyoming have been bashful about announcing that once federal protections are eliminated, they plan to systematically destroy most of the estimated 1,500 wolves that now roam the northern Rockies.
By any reasonable analysis, the return of wolves to the northern Rockies has been very beneficial. As these wolves have reasserted their presence, the Yellowstone region has once again become an ecologically healthy, dynamic and inspiring landscape that reminds us of the wilderness that challenged our forefathers and helped develop the American spirit. Literally millions of park visitors have marveled at the sight and sound of wolves and their prey playing out the age-old ritual of hunter and hunted. The local economies have benefited beyond expectation. And wolf predation on livestock has consistently run lower than originally forecast…and those ranchers who have lost livestock have been compensated by Defenders of Wildlife.
Yet, at least in a small but influential group of government officials in the region, and—obviously—in Washington, a stubborn dedication to wolf hatred and anti-conservationism persists.
But this, too, will pass. Defenders and our allies are already preparing our legal challenge to the Bush proposal. And our dedicated staff, far from being discouraged by this latest challenge, is more energized than ever. You will find them busy at work in the northern Rockies, operating not only our livestock compensation programs, but also our proactive, depredation-avoidance program that is so immensely helpful in avoiding wildlife/human conflict.
Attitudes are hard to change, but we’ve come a long way from the days when wolf reintroduction was only a dream held by a handful of dedicated wildlife enthusiasts. We will continue as we have in the past, confident that while there are always setbacks, the overall trend for enlightened wildlife conservation in this country is positive, not negative.
The Bush administration has been one giant step backward. But the steps forward are coming.
Learn more about Defenders' 35 years of conservation work for northern Rockies wolves.
