A Course in Thanksgiving

On one of the boards in the UK, the topic of a wolf attack on a pack of dogs in Idaho was raised by someone in Maine (it is a small world after all). Rey McGehee put up a link to his very excellent story about the day his borzoi's accidentally coursed a wolf in Idaho, the day before Thanksgiving.

I have to say I am not sad at all to see the wolf return. Most of our western lands is public lands and in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, etc. the forests and parks stretch from one into another. You can hunt on almost all of it, but you assume the risk when you enter wild federal land that is known to have bear, wolf, cougar and coyote. That's just the way it is, and it has been that way all our lives.

The wolf was once part of the natural landscape in this country, and it's not a bad thing that it has returned. Yes, some stock grazing on public lands (stock that is already very heavily subsidized by taxpayers) will be lost and a few hunting dogs will be tragically killed as well. Yes, some individual bad animals will have to be culled (it's done now with bear and cougar), but as a general rule the goal should be to allow them their place in the wild landscape. The notion that every top end predator has to be exterminated is as misplaced as the notion that every animal is a sacred cow. There is a place for balance and a place for people to prepare and think through situations before they enter areas with top end predators in them.

In the last areas of truely wild lands we have in this country --- in the Nolo, the Clearwater, the River of No Return, the Bridger, etc. -- the wolf should have its leave. Yes, we will have to cull wolves in some places where they rub up too close to dense human populations -- of this there is no doubt. That said, restraint and adaptation by man should be the word. An America with a healthy wolf population is something we can rightfully brag about. For all the money in the world I would not want to be a country that has shot out all its wolves, its elk, its beaver, its lion, and its bear. We were nearly there only 80 years ago. Europe has been there for centuries. It is not a future I want. Let us make balance the watchword, and protection of wild places the goal.

As an old person, with a IV in his arm and a catheter draining into a bed pan, I have no doubt Rey will be telling the tale of the day his Borzoi coursed a wolf.

That's an America we want to live in ... forever. Thanksgiving indeed.