by Jim Beers
Where to begin? The “Buffer Zones” around federal lands are private property under state jurisdiction. If Ms. Goodall decries local communities, through their governments, managing wolves that harm their economies, their hunting and their “domestic Tranquility”; please remind her that the USA is not some African country without our Bill of Rights and Constitution.
Wolf packs do not “disintegrate”, like all other animal species they fluctuate like the weather for almost as many disparate reasons. Silly assertions like a den site “occupied since the 1940’s” (i.e. 70 years) are akin to climate change assertions of the past 40 years meant only to line the pockets of researchers, increase bureaucratic power over the citizenry and gain re-election for career politicians.
We are to bemoan the fluctuation of “the most famous wolf pack on earth”? Who regrets the demise of the Lolo Idaho elk herd, or the N Yellowstone elk herd, or Minnesota moose: all of which have been eradicated to levels wherein millions of dollars in state license revenue and hundreds of millions in revenue to rural communities have been wiped out by and for as long as introduced wolves remain at high, unregulated densities.
Wolf counts down? Earth to Ms. Goodall; wolf counting like wolf hunting is a notoriously difficult matter and to think it can be done consistently and comparably year-to-year is simply ludicrous. This goes too for the “sky-is-falling” warning about sightings going down as a cry for even more federal intervention.
Yellowstone wolves have not declined because of hunting et al around the Park. Wolves have declined because they have eradicated the once-vast elk herds and moose that fed their population explosion for 20 years and are no longer available to feed them.
Finally, wolves were not “hunted” to extinction in the Lower 48. They were purposely and with great effort of time and expense eradicated over a period of 300 years by our wise forefathers that would not tolerate the dangers (over 30 deadly diseases and infections, human attacks and livestock losses, etc.) wolves create. When you assert that wolves “are beneficial to the ecosystem” you are merely dressing up your personal desires with a patina of meaningless gibberish: your wolf “ecosystem” is no more legitimate or desirable than my hunting/ranching/rural jobs/human safety/recreational safety “ecosystem”.
I suggest, as a Minnesotan that misses the moose that protected wolves have eradicated, that readers of the Post and Ms. Goodall interested in wolves disregard her African brand of environmental species tyranny and embrace the American system. Have the state agencies of Virginia and Maryland and the District wildlife agency steal some money (like the federal wolf introducers did from the States to introduce the wolves out West) and trap some wolves in Canada (they are bigger and fiercer there) and release them in western Virginia and Maryland. (Question: why has the East been spared this “wonder” to date?) Soon enough: dog owners, hunters, families with kids, livestock producers, campers, hikers, fishermen, the elderly and many others will join Western and Midwestern rural communities in howling to severely reduce wolves in some areas and eradicate them in others.
Those that think majoritarian rule should be used to forcibly impose wolves on their neighbors should remember Prohibition and all of its similar claims and unintended consequences.
Jim Beers
5 January 2014
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Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.
Jim Beers is available to speak or for consulting. You can receive future articles by sending a request with your e-mail address to: jimbeers7@comcast.net