Keisha U.
Stanley Middle School
Stanley, ID

Why do people hate me? It seems to me that I'm being hunted when I am the hunter. My relatives were beaten and burned; yet I'm important to this world, and if it weren't for me the environment would come plummeting down on the human race. I was forced on land that I didn't know. I preyed on sheep and cattle because they were available, and I didn't know where any wild game was. Thankfully, I was listed on the "Endangered Species List." Now I can go on living my life from day-to-day as any other wolf. This is probably what a thinks about every day. Wolves are very beautiful animals and a lot of people misjudge them. What people don't realize is that wolves are important to our biosphere, and I think that they should be protected.

"Through nature, through the evolutionary continuum and ecological relatedness and interdependence of all living things, we are as much a part of the wolf as the wolf is a part of us. And as we destroy or demean nature, wolves, or any other creature, great or small, we do no less to ourselves," said Michael W. Fox (qtd. in Defenders of Wildlife Wolf Curriculum). A lot of people say that wolves don't promote a balance in life because there are many other predators to keep the balance. Well, I think this is wrong! Wolves have an important part in our lives. I'm going to use the Stanley Basin as an example. Our valley is very productive and we have our predators to help with this. Say we had wolves in the basin and they were causing a 'nuisance.' Then the community signed a petition to remove the wolves. The beautiful valley is now destroyed because we have no predators to keep the balance. Basically, I'm saying that if we have no predators we have no life.

Not only does the wolf feed itself, it feeds other as well. The elk carcass that lies sprawled out on the pine needle floor will probably feed a mother fox and her kits tonight. If not the fox, there is a beetle that will help decompose the grotesque body into fertilizer. This beetle is called the burying beetle. This little arthropod lays its eggs in the carcass to produce more of these amazing bugs. To our advantage we get a thriving forest filled with wildlife. This way of life can also be ruptured by the act of man.

When wolves were reintroduced into the Frank Church Wilderness Area, along with many other areas, there arose a big controversy. Ranchers were losing their cattle. The cause of this was due to the fact that wolves didn't know the area and were completely lost. Then worse came to worst. The wolves were feeding on livestock just to survive and help their packs live. To me there is no difference between a wolf dropping a cow to save its own life, as well as others, or a poor family stealing from a store. Not only that, but coyotes and dogs serve a bigger threat to cattle than any other predator. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service shows that coyotes killed 69.6 percent of cattle in Idaho compared to 33.3 percent that wolves and other predators killed (4). For some reason though, we always see more news printings about wolf killings than coyotes. Another controversy is that the wolves are a protected species.

Rodger Schlickeisen wrote "Endangered species are the memories of childhood, the stuff that carefree sunny afternoons were made of. They are the beetles and snails, butterflies and dragonflies endlessly pursued and carefully captured to be admired in mason jars with freshly picked grass and newly aerated lids," (5). The thing about wolves is that they're very unique and exquisite. No other animal hunts, thinks, or communicates they way wolves do. To me that is the reason why some people hate them so much, a creature so perfect to be alive. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act wolves are protected.

Like any other creature, the wolf should be treated with respect even if it is a "blood-thirsty killer", like Ron Gillete, Anti-Wolf Coalition speaker, said. To a lot of people the wolf signifies peace and strength. In a way aren't we peaceful and strong too? Vicky Runnoe, a Fish and Game representative speaker, said that in all areas the prey controls the predator. So if we are the predator and the wolf is the prey, why are we controlling the prey?

I have watched the face of many newly wolfless mountains, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every tree defoiliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone has given God a new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise. In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-lined junipers (Leopold 130).

We take away what we don't want, and we keep what we need. So if the wolves are something we need why are we taking them from their habitat? After all they were here first. We need balance and control. It is not very often that you see a wolf. Let's just hope that when you do, you can see the worry in the moon yellow eyes, the hope in the milky white, smoky gray, or midnight black coat, the curiosity in the perky ears, and the long days of traveling in the rough padded paws, and show a little respect to protect Canis Lupus.

Fox, Michael W. "The Wolf and the Web of Life." Defenders of Wildlife Wolf Curriculum.

Leopold, Aldo. The Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. 1949.

Schlickeisen, Rodger. "Endangered Species." Defenders. Summer 1998.

USDA National Agriculture Statistic Service. "Cattle Predator Loss." Online.

http://jan.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nasst/livestock/. 2 Dec. 2002.