Trump’s really gotten obsessed with all things Canada. It’s rivaled his obsession with ‘illegal immigration’ so he came up with the not so bright idea of combining the two, albeit making Canadian WOLVES illegal in the United States. Or at least Colorado, which come to think of it also happens to be on his sh*t list.
Wolves were a sort of public enemy #1 for much of the twentieth century. However, prompted in part by those who raised livestock for a living great effort went into eradicating them. People were flat out encouraged to kill wolves on sight for a time. Even after some protections were put into place and livestock owners got government compensation for depredation they still worked around the system to kill wolves whenever they could. So wolves became an endangered species but then the Endangered Species Act was passed and it had teeth.
Slowly, over the objections of ranchers out west conservation efforts have been made to rebuild wolf population, at least in the mountain west. I won’t get into the weeds about how wildlife populations need genetic diversity to thrive. Hopefully you’ll accept that it’s important. The wider the gene pool the better for any species. Given the challenges animal breeds face in the wild they need every advantage they can get. Of course, first you have to have enough of a given species to start building a sustainable population and that’s where things like Colorado’s gray wolf re-introduction program come into play. As in other states wolves have been captured in other places and taken to areas to re-establish themsevles.
In Colorado voters approved (over ranchers objections) a wolf re-introduction program and have been importing gray wolves from Canada. And, as I stated at the outset Trump is FURIOUS with our neighbor and former staunch ally (and trading partner) to our north. It’s been brewing for a while and as I’m sure you know boiled over last week. However, from where I sit when you reach down into an agency like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service looking for ways to stick it to Canada perhaps it’s time to step back and take a deep breath.
Alas, as the LA Times tells us it’s been decreed that Colorado can no longer bring in wolves captured in Canada. Other U.S. states? That’s ok (for now) but Canada? Nope. It’s more Trumpian petulance, an attempt to “get” Canada and the funny part is that it won’t make a bit of difference to Canada and their own wildlife management. Sure, it will cause a bit of an issue given the cost in time and money to capture gray wolves, and work out agreements with Colorado. The latter might in fact kick up a fuss and demand Canada honor it’s part of the bargain.
However, as of now Canadian wolves are now to be considered what, alien wolves? Illegal Alien Wolves? I’m sure former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem just loves the idea. ICE Barbie is probably having wet dreams of stomping (well, sort of – they’d use helicopter to go around looking for wolves) around Colorado with some of her agents and killing wolves on sight because they “look like illegals.” If she can find one still being nursed by it’s mom to shoot in the face Noem would be over the freaking moon!
So what we have is a program that’s just getting going (only five years old) that’s now in jeopardy because of a Trumpian hissy fit:
Colorado wolves must come from Northern Rockies states, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik told Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis in a recent letter.
Colorado must “immediately cease and desist any and all efforts related to the capture, transport and/or release of gray wolves not obtained” from northern Rocky Mountain states, Nesvik wrote.
Most of those states — including the Yellowstone region states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, where wolves from Canada were reintroduced in the 1990s — have said they don’t want to be part of Colorado’s reintroduction.
This kind of thing gets really wonky and while the linked article provides some details there’s plenty more to the matter. Colorado is ‘looking at its options’ and at the heart of the matter is whether our Fish and Wildlife Service can up and make the change Trumpty’s lapdog seems to have made on his own. (Upon orders from above) While a small number of re-introduced wolves came from Oregon most have come from British Columbia up in Canada. The 2023 authorization says the northern Rockies region is the ‘preferred source’ of wolves to be moved to Colorado (west of the Continental Divide) it’s not required.
As I’ve said, other states that have slowly been building up wolf populations are reluctant to have some of their own trapped and transplanted to Colorado. Canada however has, hence what seemed to be a solid, long-term agreement that could in the years ahead provide a couple hundred wolves. CAN the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service up and make this change banning Canadian wolves? We’ll see. If you didn’t know, traditionally the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been the most often sued federal agency.
Of course, immigration has I’m sure caused DHS to move up to the top of the list but here’s a case that’s a twofer! Oh well. What’s interesting about it or should be even if conservation and wildlife management isn’t your thing is something I mentioned when writing about last weeks escalation between the U.S. and Canada. Trump has been simmering at just before full boil for quite a bit longer than people have realized. He’s tried to bully Canada and the country famed for its politeness pretty much publicly told Trumpty to go screw himself. I don’t think it’s stretch that he had Susie Wiles put the word out to every agency to look for ways to mess with Canada, or any joint work our countries have going.
Who the hell knows what will come next, but Trump’s pettiness and vindictiveness knows no bounds and it’s filtered down to something as innocuous as conservation and wildlife management! I sure hope a reporter asks Trumpty about this while the cameras are rolling. He might have what little sanity still within him kick in and blow it off with a “I don’t pay attention to little stuff like that.’ Then again, since it involve CANADA and he thinks of what he calls ‘illegal immigrants’ not at human beings but animals Trumpty must might go off on a riff. Talk of a Canadian invasion using ‘hoards of ILLEGAL wolves’ to take over this country. Yes, that would be something to behold. And plenty of fodder both for ridicule and more seriously whispering in the GOP it’s time to actually consider the 25th amendment.
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From what I’ve read, it seems that re-establishing wolf populations actually preserves forests.
I guess because when the deer populations get out of control, there must be deforestation.
Maybe Canadian geese are next? They do come here very winter.
You just made me realize it’s been too long since I’ve done a re-read of A Sand County Almanac. Aldo Leopold was a Wisconsinite who is widely regarded as the father of modern wildlife management. The book is a collection of essays written over the course of his life (He died in the late 1940s while helping put out a fire on a neighbor’s farm) and as with so many who appreciate conservation and good natural resource management (including wildlife) and responsible outdoor recreation practices that book is a key one in our collections. Also like most my favorite chapter is Goose Music and growing up in the Midwest Flyway close to where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet up I can sit back and think to my earliest memories of being outside in the yard and marveling at the honking of geese flying overhead. Watching their formation and learning why they flew in that V, and how they would rotate who was at the point of the V.
I was a thrill I and my friends experienced multiple times a day during the migration and yes, the honking was like music. Which we could hear even at night. Leopold’s life took him away from his native Wisconsin for long stretches and some of his writings cover his time when he was young – and killing wolves. Because that’s what everyone was expected to do whenever they could and out west he ruefully recounts taking part in slaughters. As he grew old and wise he wrote about how a mountain without it’s wolves was missing something important.
Although he died too young we are lucky to have that seminal collection of essays. Joni Mitchell summed up the sentiment we was starting to feel before he died -“They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.” Even if you don’t want to purchase a copy of that book (five bucks in paperback version from a used bookseller) much less read it I respectfully suggest this: If you find yourself in a library see if they have a copy and if they do read the Chapter titled Goose Music. From start to finish it’s more than worth the eight to ten minutes. It will provide fuel for the rest of your life bo want to preserve as much as we still can our environment, our natural resources and the natural beauty that’s out there.
I love the sound of geese flying overhead. I think ducks sound humorous, with their low pitched quacking.
how many documented cases of people being killed by healthy wolves are there in all of recorded history? hint, it’s a trick question.