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[truebluegreen]

20. "The rule would change again."

Last edited Sat Jun 8, 2013, 05:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Not likely, since it is a political hot potato in the northern and western states where wolves exist.

Furthermore, wolves are not pests, but rather an important part of a balanced ecosystem. Before wolves were re-introduced in Yellowstone in the 90s, the park was in bad shape. The system was way out of balance with an overabundance of elk--unhealthy, and overtaxing the available range--and coyotes. After re-introduction, the coyote population plummeted, leading to a rebound of all the smaller predators, and the elk herd was culled to a smaller and healthier size, and the range itself flourished (before anyone points out that human culling could have had some of the same effects, remember that humans hunt the strongest, and wolves the weakest specimens).

Outside the park(s) the benefits can be the same. Do you know why coyotes have extended their range to all of the continental states? Or why they have become so aggressive? Historically that wasn't their range or their nature, but we wiped out the larger, faster, stronger version, that was also shyer of humans...we bred the coyote problem.

And it was largely unnecessary. I can't remember when--maybe in the 30s?--the US government started paying ranchers for predator losses. Suddenly every loss was due to predators, not to weather, or birthing problems, or anything else. Which you know is laughable if you have ever spent any time in the Rockies in the spring. But by now generations have lived with the idea that every dead calf or lamb or whatever was killed by a predator, and so all of them are "pests."