Reply #2: See Wolf Storm in Yellowstone [View All]

[liberal N proud]

NDRC
Louisa Willcox's Blog

The wolves were barely visible, with so much snow falling heavy and fast. Across Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley, a black wolf was tussling with a pale gray one, on its back, feet in the air. In a flash, the gray rolled over, jumped up and playfully snapped at the black, who leaped to the side and came back for the other’s legs. Two other wolves lay curled up nearby. Behind them were about 30 buffalo, plastered with white. A few were taking the storm lying down, but most were grazing placidly, pushing the deep snow from the grass with their huge heads. Three ravens erupted from a draw near the wolves, sign of a recent kill. And a reminder that a wolf kill feeds more than the immediate family.


I needed this trip—we needed this trip, my husband and I. And we needed to see wolves especially, the animal that we had been working so hard for. In fact, we had worked ourselves through the holiday, and many, many months before that, preparing for the moment, perhaps a week away, when the federal government would decide to allow the killing of hundreds of wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and central Idaho. First would come a revised “10(j)” rule under the Endangered Species Act, then—even worse—the government would remove federal protections altogether. Under both rules, massive numbers of wolves would be killed.


But wait a minute. Aren’t these the same wolves that Americans had made a commitment to restore, after they had been shot, poisoned and trapped out of 95% of their former range in the lower-48 states?



http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/lwillcox/wolf_storm_in_yellowstone.html