Cheyenne's Howl

Printed in Mountain Messenger on Friday - December 19, 1997

More Re-Introduction

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In reading my latest Defenders magazine I found out that Congress earmarked $300,000 in the Interior Department spending bill for an environmental impact study on reintroducing wolves in Olympic National Park. Olympic Park is up in Washington state near Seattle. The move to provide the funding was led by Representative Norm Dicks, (D-Washington), whose district includes the park. Less than a year ago, Representative Dicks, along with The Defenders of Wildlife, started the wolf restoration campaign and back in April organized a conference in the park. This conference brought together local citizens, national wolf experts, and journalists to discuss the reintroduction of the gray wolf. During a forty year period between 1890 and 1930, government agencies and bounty killers wiped out the gray wolf population in the Olympic Mountain Region. We wolves were systematically shot, poisoned, and trapped to the point of extermination from the area. But now, with Representative Dicks help, the natural balance of the region can be restored with the return of the wolf.

There is also a move to restore the eastern timber wolf to the Adirondack Park in upstate New York. I too am a timber wolf which is a subspecies of the gray wolf. We were exterminated from the Northeast nearly a century ago as the human population took over. The Adirondack Park is the largest public park, including Yellowstone, in the lower 48 states. It is made up of over six millon acres that include large tracts of prime habitat for us wolves. Two wolves from Colorado based Mission Wolf, "Sila" and "Merlin", have been touring New York and New England as ambassadors for the movement to restore wolves to their historic habitat in the Northeast.

The return of the Mexican wolf is about to take place in the American Southwest. Several pairs of Mexican wolves, or El Lobo as they are known, have finally been cleared for reintroduction early next year. Defenders and other groups are hard at work across Arizona and New Mexico to educate, inform, and calm residents who may be concerned about my cousins return to the wild.

There was a petition signed earlier this year that asked the Clinton Administration to add the rare Alaska Alexander Archipelago wolves to the list of endangered species. There are only about 900 of them left living in the old-growth Tongass National Forest. Loggers want to clearcut in the area and so the government has now refused to protect these cousins of mine. As you already know, there is a group of private citizens that are offering a $400 bounty on Alaskan wolves. I wonder who I need to talk with to arrange for a bounty on humans who for their own personal gain and greed are anti-wildlife and could care less about the environment and the consequences of their actions that they cause? As I've told you before, there is also a movement in Alaska to overturn the hard won ban on the same day, land and shoot hunting of wolves. What's the matter, can't you big brave macho hunters get your prey with your own efforts? Go ahead and challenge us one on one and see how often you will win.

Cheyenne