Living the Wild Life

Doug Smith has been hard at work with wolves in Yellowstone for six years. But the animals have been a big part of his life since long before that.

“I grew up in northern Ohio,” he says, “where my father owned a camp. As a boy I was outdoors almost every day—tramping through the woods, watching birds, turning over rocks to look for salamanders.”

All that time outside helped create in Dr. Smith not just a fascination with animals, but a strong concern for how people treat them.

“I knew early on I wanted to be a voice for that part of the world that doesn't have a voice,” he recalls. “At about 12 years old, I started reading about wolves. I found out that they were persecuted, they were rare, they only lived in wilderness areas.”

By the time he was 16, Doug Smith was writing letters to Dave Mech, one of the most respected wolf researchers in the country, looking for ways to get involved. Two years later, as a senior in high school, he had his first of many volunteer jobs working with wolves.

He could hardly have picked an animal more in need of a voice. Throughout history, all over the world, wolves have been shot, trapped, and poisoned. Though at one time they were common throughout much of America, by 1964 their numbers had dwindled to fewer than 500 animals in the lower 48 states, most in northern Minnesota.

The science of ecology tells us that you can't remove one piece of nature's puzzle without affecting the other pieces. As an example, Dr. Smith points to the problem New England has today with deer ticks, a small insect that carries Lyme disease, a danger to humans. “The reason there are so many deer ticks is because, with no predators around, we have record levels of deer. Those deer, in turn, are in many places over-browsing the plants. Once you lose the plants—things like aspen and willow—you also lose the songbirds that make their homes there.”

The wolves of Yellowstone are teaching us much the same lesson. Wolves help keep elk numbers in check. They prompt elk to move, which keeps them from overgrazing the plants that grow along streams and rivers. The remains of the animals that wolves kill for food provide dinner for a variety of other creatures. Beetles feed on wolf kills, as do grizzlies, eagles and fox.

Beyond all that, though, much of the appeal wolves have for Dr. Smith is simply their wildness.

“There are few things in the world that we will never conquer,” he says. “Skunks, coyotes, red fox—all of those animals have learned to deal with people. But we can't make wolves live with us by turning them into something else. They are truly a symbol of all things wild.”

Restoring Wolves: You Make the Call

For: Doug Smith, Director of wolf recovery, Yellowstone National Park

In the world today there is so much we are losing; more and more species vanish from the earth with every passing year. The time has come to put something back, to restore, to heal some of the old wounds we’ve inflicted on the landscape over the years.

Wolves are the dominant predators in North America—as such, they play a critical role in keeping the continent healthy. Most places don’t have enough wild country to make such predator restoration possible, which means it’s even more important to restore wolves where conditions are right; places like Yellowstone, which has both a high level of wildness, as well as an abundant prey base. (Yellowstone offers wolves one of the highest prey-to-predator ratios to be found anywhere in the world.)

Some who oppose wolves have a human-centered point of view—a perspective that basically says the earth is here for humans, and is completely at our disposal. But wolves offer us a chance to live another way—a way that makes it a priority to learn to live with other life forms.

Against: Larry Bourret, Executive Vice President, Wyoming Farm Bureau

What does wolf introduction to Yellowstone mean? To the average citizen it probably just means introducing wolves to Yellowstone. There would be no adverse impacts because livestock do not graze in the park and few people live near Yellowstone.

But to ranchers it means introducing wolves, which wander over vast areas—in and out of the park—onto their ranches.

Wolves eat meat—as in the cattle, calves, sheep or lambs that keep ranchers in business. Introduction apparently also means lawsuits by environmental groups attempting to remove livestock from federal lands. To ranchers, who own private lands in the same area, it means the possibility of financial ruin. To ranchers it is a form of land use restrictions. To ranchers introducing wolves means taking away the ranchers’ livelihoods without just compensation.

Why don’t we introduce wolves into New York City; Washington, D.C.; or Chicago, where they were at one time? Because the people in those areas would not like wolves in their area! Why do people not want a nuclear power plant built in their backyard—for the same reason ranchers do not want wolves introduced into their backyard.

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