Letter: Wolves deserve our protection
Last year Idaho approved the killing of 90% of its wolves, and Wisconsin killed 200 in less than 60 hours. Recently 500 were killed in the northern Rockies.
This is a disaster for our ecosystems.
When wolves returned to Yellowstone, they changed the ecosystem. Of course they killed some animals, but deer and elk became more alert and moved more frequently. Where they had over-browsed, willows and aspens regenerated. Songbirds returned. Soil erosion decreased. Beavers spread and built new dams and ponds. Even the rivers changed, with deeper channels and shaded pools making better habitat for amphibians, fish and ducks. There are debates as to whether it was all because of wolves, but they certainly were responsible for most of the change.
Wolves do not kill children, although that was used at one time as a reason to shoot them. They take only a small percentage of cattle, for which the ranchers are compensated. I have more concern over the methane-belching, climate-impacting cattle, a lot raised on our public lands.
Although now protected in much of the country, wolves are not protected in the northern Rockies. The anti-wolf contingent has a truly powerful lobby.
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Please contact U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and ask for an emergency re-listing of the northern Rockies gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act.
Wolves deserve our protection. They have ecosystems to heal.
Katherine Delanoy
Eagle
