It appears that the National Park Service can no longer handle its responsibilities regarding wildlife management and they have designs on assigning surrogates to that task.
We need to weigh in on the topic.
Ranger Wolf: predators pushed as park stewards is the title of today’s highlighted story and it starts like this:
With ballooning elk and deer populations eating up greenery and altering ecosystems at national parks across the country, a group of researchers is suggesting an unusual solution: introduce small packs of gray wolves to curb the expanding herds.
They dance around the topic in this article but allow me to clarify the real problem.
Despite anything else they may say, the National Park Service refuses to take responsibility for their failed and failing wildlife management policies.
While they blame “ballooning” populations on a lack of predators, they refuse to allow the primary natural predator access to the herds.
That primary predator, dear friends, is human hunters.
Park Service thinking, however, is a bit twisted. The issue is not one of shooting deer and elk. These animals are shot in our parks on a regular basis. The only real question is who will actually pull the trigger. Apparently only federal agents qualify, and it costs us a ton of money to “manage” in this manner.
The fact is that sport hunting is the most ecologically, economically and socially appropriate method for managing wildlife in or out of our parks. (For a detailed discussion of this topic see my 5-part series Hunting In The Parks.)
Wolves are not the answer and I’m not alone in my assessment.
Excerpt:
“Wolves fix very few problems compared to the ones they create,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Ed Bangs, who leads the Northern Rockies wolf restoration program.
What’s worse, the wolves themselves are not getting the management they warrant and, like other wildlife, shooting them is taboo unless you happen to be a federal employee.
Excerpt:
“That program has withstood criticism in part by taking a hard line against wolves attacking livestock. Since 1995, more than 1,200 wolves have been shot in the region by government wildlife agents or ranchers in defending their property.”
Let that number sink in a moment.
More than 1,200 wolves have been shot... and, yet, the population of wolves in the Rocky Mountain region is considered by many to be out of control.
Be forewarned, folks, this is not just a passing thought.
Excerpt:
However, other than the Rocky Mountain National Park proposal, Licht said he knew of none under consideration to cart in wolves and task them with ecological restoration. Give the idea a few years to germinate, he said.
“It is indeed consistent with Park Service policy, which to restore native species and natural processes,” he said. “Right now we’re starting the dialogue.”
I have a hard time picturing wolves in Park Service uniforms. It is much easier visualizing the removal of those uniforms from the bunch who currently wear them…
