A European organization aims to "facilitate wolf and human coexistence." In the U.S., the apex predators are spreading through California, but struggling to survive in Colorado.
I used to live in Haute Provence ( the southern Alps in France), and particularly in the large Mercantour National Park on the Italian border, wolves were both reintroduced and found there since 1992. The local Department encouraged the programme and so introduced compensation for shepherds who lost sheep to wolves, along with a comprehensive system of sheep carcass analysis (and scientists to administer it), DNA wolf identification, tracking and monitoring of packs and individuals, and a public campaign to reassure people, particularly farmers and shepherds.
Of course the local Press would still feature wolf attacks on sheep and predict disaster, but in general the broad consensus seems to be that it has been a good thing, not least because the compensation for a dead sheep killed by wolves has been generous!
All that said, the burgeoning wolf population does cause fear, even though it is actually very, very hard to spot one. I know, I have tried when living there and they are notoriously shy of humans - easy enough in such a wild, mountainous and empty area.
If you are interested in the interactions between men and wolves, especially in America, may I recommend the book by the naturalist Barry Lopez, called 'Of Wolves And Men'. It combines history, harsh realism and poetic prose as no other.
Thanks for the book recommendation. Yes, compensation is a strategy here as well. Electric fencing was used to deter the Lassen Pack once it started in on some local cattle. Wolves are like mountain lions. We have a lot of them but never see them.
Fascinating news. Thanks for sharing the positive new Amanda. In the Netherlands we saw wolves return a couple of years ago, I believe for the first time in some 150 years. They are now even breeding in “the dutch mountains”, the Veluwe area in the east of the country. One wolf made it two years ago as far as the village on the island where I live in the southwest (like most dutch islands, it’s connected via a dam to other islands and ultimately to the mainland). I remember feeling a bit nervous the next morning during a morning run in the dunes. 😅
Exactly! I'm trying to figure out all my emotions about this. Amazement but also some form of excited trepidation. In this moment, I'm invited to begin my own relationship with wolves. Holy smokes.
I understand where Bill McKibben is coming from when he says hope "can feel callus"... but I respectfully disagree. Hope in the face of our polycrisis is courageous. I don't mean the apathetic, hand-wavy, "Oh scientists will fix it," sentiment--that is not hope. Hope is a verb. It's being afraid that climate change will wipe us out, but acting as if we can save ourselves and save life as we know it. Hope is a practice and it's terribly difficult. Maybe, as Bill discusses, it is fuelled a bit by fear. After all, courage is being afraid but doing the thing anyway. (Also, thank you for sharing this great story about wolves and bringing back our relationship with dogs, I love it and was so pleased to learn about the spread of wolves across the globe. Personally, Greece and California are very special to me so it was cool to learn about both in one post despite them being separated by thousands of miles.)
I think what I love so much about what you do is celebrating the wins, even in the face of catastrophe. It reminds me of recovery and healing in other walks of life - we have to celebrate one small win at a time to eventually be thriving.
Agreed with this comment. For the general public who don’t know what can be done, if anything, to help with conservation, it can be pretty bleak out there. It’s too easy to just throw our hands up which is exactly what helps feed this narrative.
Hope is crucial to spurring action and using science and technology for change. As we can see with all of the examples in this article, if humans are truly an intelligent species there’s no reason why we can’t have mutually beneficial solutions for both agriculture and conservation.
And we have so many middle grounds to choose from! We just need to ask how does this ecosystem want to support us? There’s Agroforestry, regenerative farming on land and sea, permaculture community gardens… together we can.
I fell in love with wolves as a child reading The Eyes of Gray Wolf by Jonathan London, right around the time of the Idaho project. I was heavily invested in the “save the wolves” campaigns of 30 years ago and this article spoke to my 8 year old heart.
As always, this was chock full of examples of how thoughtful solutions can be beneficial for all. Thank you for bringing the hope. I think it is just as useful, if not more so, in the fight for conservation. People need to know we can make a difference and what actions to take.
Thank you for all the wolf updates and the other articles as well!
This is a nice column and as always, I root for such programs. I also root for the Indians during every cowboy and Indian film.
For most urban people, my guess is that this sounds great, but should we all accustom ourselves to hiking in Tahoe and coming upon a pack of wolves feeding on a deer - you know, tearing it limb from limb and feeding on its innards?
And, most importantly, should we accept an occasional human loss in light of larger wild populations?
I say we should. I say it is a small price to pay.
But as a matter of public policy, isn’t it a hard sell?
That's just the little cabin after the big mountain snow we skied on the wedding day.
I suspect there could be some hyperbole here, Mr. Kern. My guess is that wolves will avoid all human places, hiking trails and accommodations. They have a reputation for being quite shy. So do deer. So I expect that only very curious, mindful humans will be lucky enough to observe them doing anything at all. As far as "human loss," there are hardly any documented cases of wolves harming humans, but yes, they do incur economic losses. So, raising meat may grow more expensive, as we deploy more dogs, more fences, and more humans to watch over our meat. Yes, it's been a very hard sell in some places. But the story is meant to demonstrate that a middle ground may be available where all may prosper.
It may have seemed like hyperbole, and if so, I apologize.
I know it may seem incredible, that some in our major cities might have such ideas in their heads - but they do. Many people have never and will never encounter a wolf in the wild, and genuinely wonder about these questions.
On the other hand, this may not occur to people endeavoring to restore wild places. So, being a city dweller who has encountered some odd questions about the topic, I raise it here.
Excellent article, so good to read hopeful news about wolves and to know that farmers can so successfully use the right breeds of dogs to protect their flocks from wolves. Thanks for including a link to my article!
Yes, we definitely have too many deer here and wolves would help keep down their numbers, but we're a long way from the public even thinking of accepting the reintroduction of wolves here
Amazing human-animal dynamic that's complicated by climate change. Thank you for an informative post.
I used to live in Haute Provence ( the southern Alps in France), and particularly in the large Mercantour National Park on the Italian border, wolves were both reintroduced and found there since 1992. The local Department encouraged the programme and so introduced compensation for shepherds who lost sheep to wolves, along with a comprehensive system of sheep carcass analysis (and scientists to administer it), DNA wolf identification, tracking and monitoring of packs and individuals, and a public campaign to reassure people, particularly farmers and shepherds.
Of course the local Press would still feature wolf attacks on sheep and predict disaster, but in general the broad consensus seems to be that it has been a good thing, not least because the compensation for a dead sheep killed by wolves has been generous!
All that said, the burgeoning wolf population does cause fear, even though it is actually very, very hard to spot one. I know, I have tried when living there and they are notoriously shy of humans - easy enough in such a wild, mountainous and empty area.
If you are interested in the interactions between men and wolves, especially in America, may I recommend the book by the naturalist Barry Lopez, called 'Of Wolves And Men'. It combines history, harsh realism and poetic prose as no other.
Thanks for the book recommendation. Yes, compensation is a strategy here as well. Electric fencing was used to deter the Lassen Pack once it started in on some local cattle. Wolves are like mountain lions. We have a lot of them but never see them.
Fascinating news. Thanks for sharing the positive new Amanda. In the Netherlands we saw wolves return a couple of years ago, I believe for the first time in some 150 years. They are now even breeding in “the dutch mountains”, the Veluwe area in the east of the country. One wolf made it two years ago as far as the village on the island where I live in the southwest (like most dutch islands, it’s connected via a dam to other islands and ultimately to the mainland). I remember feeling a bit nervous the next morning during a morning run in the dunes. 😅
Exactly! I'm trying to figure out all my emotions about this. Amazement but also some form of excited trepidation. In this moment, I'm invited to begin my own relationship with wolves. Holy smokes.
I understand where Bill McKibben is coming from when he says hope "can feel callus"... but I respectfully disagree. Hope in the face of our polycrisis is courageous. I don't mean the apathetic, hand-wavy, "Oh scientists will fix it," sentiment--that is not hope. Hope is a verb. It's being afraid that climate change will wipe us out, but acting as if we can save ourselves and save life as we know it. Hope is a practice and it's terribly difficult. Maybe, as Bill discusses, it is fuelled a bit by fear. After all, courage is being afraid but doing the thing anyway. (Also, thank you for sharing this great story about wolves and bringing back our relationship with dogs, I love it and was so pleased to learn about the spread of wolves across the globe. Personally, Greece and California are very special to me so it was cool to learn about both in one post despite them being separated by thousands of miles.)
Yes! Hope is a verb. I also think of it as a discipline.
I think what I love so much about what you do is celebrating the wins, even in the face of catastrophe. It reminds me of recovery and healing in other walks of life - we have to celebrate one small win at a time to eventually be thriving.
Agreed with this comment. For the general public who don’t know what can be done, if anything, to help with conservation, it can be pretty bleak out there. It’s too easy to just throw our hands up which is exactly what helps feed this narrative.
Hope is crucial to spurring action and using science and technology for change. As we can see with all of the examples in this article, if humans are truly an intelligent species there’s no reason why we can’t have mutually beneficial solutions for both agriculture and conservation.
Yes, a middle ground.
And we have so many middle grounds to choose from! We just need to ask how does this ecosystem want to support us? There’s Agroforestry, regenerative farming on land and sea, permaculture community gardens… together we can.
Fascinating article Amanda, thoroughly enjoyed reading! Its incredible how important wolves are for the functioning of ecosystems.
I fell in love with wolves as a child reading The Eyes of Gray Wolf by Jonathan London, right around the time of the Idaho project. I was heavily invested in the “save the wolves” campaigns of 30 years ago and this article spoke to my 8 year old heart.
As always, this was chock full of examples of how thoughtful solutions can be beneficial for all. Thank you for bringing the hope. I think it is just as useful, if not more so, in the fight for conservation. People need to know we can make a difference and what actions to take.
Thank you for all the wolf updates and the other articles as well!
Thanks for your engagement and for the book recommendation.
This was some wedding. Marvelous.
This is a nice column and as always, I root for such programs. I also root for the Indians during every cowboy and Indian film.
For most urban people, my guess is that this sounds great, but should we all accustom ourselves to hiking in Tahoe and coming upon a pack of wolves feeding on a deer - you know, tearing it limb from limb and feeding on its innards?
And, most importantly, should we accept an occasional human loss in light of larger wild populations?
I say we should. I say it is a small price to pay.
But as a matter of public policy, isn’t it a hard sell?
That's just the little cabin after the big mountain snow we skied on the wedding day.
I suspect there could be some hyperbole here, Mr. Kern. My guess is that wolves will avoid all human places, hiking trails and accommodations. They have a reputation for being quite shy. So do deer. So I expect that only very curious, mindful humans will be lucky enough to observe them doing anything at all. As far as "human loss," there are hardly any documented cases of wolves harming humans, but yes, they do incur economic losses. So, raising meat may grow more expensive, as we deploy more dogs, more fences, and more humans to watch over our meat. Yes, it's been a very hard sell in some places. But the story is meant to demonstrate that a middle ground may be available where all may prosper.
It may have seemed like hyperbole, and if so, I apologize.
I know it may seem incredible, that some in our major cities might have such ideas in their heads - but they do. Many people have never and will never encounter a wolf in the wild, and genuinely wonder about these questions.
On the other hand, this may not occur to people endeavoring to restore wild places. So, being a city dweller who has encountered some odd questions about the topic, I raise it here.
Thank you for responding.
William Kern
No need to apologize! It's a good point to raise.
Excellent article, so good to read hopeful news about wolves and to know that farmers can so successfully use the right breeds of dogs to protect their flocks from wolves. Thanks for including a link to my article!
I hope I accurately represented the issue in Scotland.
Yes, we definitely have too many deer here and wolves would help keep down their numbers, but we're a long way from the public even thinking of accepting the reintroduction of wolves here
Wonderful read, thank you.
This is great to know. About 6 years ago I went through Hope Valley on CA-88 and CA-89.
Bless these magnificent creatures!
You might like John D Burns’ novel Sky Dance… if you’re not already a fan!
Thanks! I’ll check it out. I love anything Scotland.
Super read, thank you.