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Chris Bray's avatar

This is a question I have asked and asked, and it's hard to get an answer from government officials or environmental groups: What is a wild animal? If wolves are nurtured and protected, and can't legally be killed by humans no matter how close their sustained contact with people becomes, are they wild? If wolves are "introduced," moved around in cages and trailers and injected into new areas, is that the behavior of a "wild" animal? So the whole project is based on a bizarre pastoral fetishism in which wolves are scenic, romanticized and sentimentalized, but the people who want to fetishize them won't deal with the reality of the nature they romanticize. The break from reality doesn't end well.

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OregonB's avatar

Terrific write-up Keely. The obvious answer is to allow the ranchers to protect their herds (and families). There are some interesting side notes that, maybe 5 years ago, might have sounded a little conspiratorial: where the wolves are coming from, for example. However, maybe now they are not so unbelievable. Chris Brays' writing on Pt Reyes ranchers vs the NPS comes to mind. Colorado's reintroduction of wolves (donated by Oregon, of course) was also done in murky fashion. A bit off-topic, but we had two years of federal denials that our southern border was wide-open, with planes taking off at night. The last administration apparently had few concerns with having entire communities completely unprepared for what happened to them.

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Chris Bray's avatar

The environmental groups that sued NPS to remove the ranchers at Point Reyes have proposed the introduction of wolves to the Point Reyes National Seashore.

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OregonB's avatar

Incredible. My solution is this: anytime wolves or grizzlies are reintroduced into a rural area a matching number of the same species is also released into, say, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Santa Monica, etc...

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Ted's avatar

And when they do, Mr. Bray, the wealthy residents of Marin will find themselves suddenly irrelevant to the news cycle. One of their kids will get killed out Limantour way, and the wealthy will discover how it feels to be on the other side of the elision they've subjected working folks to for generations.

I take no satisfaction at the thought of such a comeuppance, because the child should not inherit the guilt of their parents.

That the ESA has been allowed to rhetorically equate regional population shifts with "extinction" is murderous.

There's no point in appealing to California government for relief; it long ago declared its utter disregard for the welfare of American citizens.

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Jeff Douglas's avatar

I think this might be your most powerful post yet.

The romance of the wild wolf, versus the harsh reality of the natural world viewed through the distant lens far from rural reality.

It’s easy to advocate for “nature” when it’s not actually natural and your livelihood isn’t impacted.

Luxury beliefs are not confined to just urban policy.

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Demetra Markis's avatar

This is an incredible article; thank you. I hope it gets widely read.

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Timmy Taes's avatar

Thanks for the excellent article on the wolf problem in Northern California. No doubt, the ranchers are right about motive. The big meat producers and collectivists don't want independent ranchers on the land.

Perhaps there is a demand for trackers who will hunt down the wolves to their dens. Dynamite and hand grenades would take care of the problem.

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Ted's avatar
2dEdited

"The big meat producers and collectivists don't want independent ranchers on the land."

Tim, I've spent a lifetime tracking the everyday mendacity of business. Once again, you have placed your finger directly on the pulse of the matter.

One of these days, I want to shake your hand and buy you a beer.

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Timmy Taes's avatar

Ted, these big corporate businessmen are sociopaths. They have no conscience.

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RICH HOWARD's avatar

Hmmm, lets drop a half dozen of those little bastards into the Berkeley hills and lets see how welcoming the locals will be to "God's creatures." Wolves have devastated elk populations in the Idaho Panhandle and Northeast Washington. I do not pity some Libtard quiche eater who loses Fifi the poodle to one of their sacred cows.

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Ted's avatar

“At some point, urban people have to share the burden of raising wolves the way the ranchers are now."

That point is already upon us. We have mountain lions within city limits. A couple of years ago, a mountain lion was captured in a Sonoma County downtown mall's shrubbery.

As long as urban newspapers refuse to report on the attacks and close-encounters, the public will remain in blissful ignorance. At some point, someone's going to snap, start live-trapping predators and releasing them in the neighborhoods where the agitators live, the agitators who are quite pleased to destroy food supplies and consider human life too cheap to bother about.

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Oldcowboy4570's avatar

The Laura Ingalls Wilder story and the fear Europeans had for wolves got me thinking about a Nordic Lullaby.

Jonna JInton sings "The Wolf Song". It's haunting and about a woman listening to wolves howl and protecting her child.

https://youtu.be/KTmatjyd4KM?si=5kRKVBQy6zPJK3IC

Lyrics to the song below.

The wolf howls in the night forest

Vargen ylar i nattens skog

He wants to, but can't sleep

Han vill, men kan inte sova

Hunger tears his wolf belly

Hungern river hans vargabuk

And it's cold in his living room

Och det är kallt i hans stova

You wolf, you wolf, don't come here

Du varg, du varg, kom inte hit

You will never have my child

Ungen min får du aldrig

You wolf, you wolf, don't come here

Du varg, du varg, kom inte hit

You will never have my child

Ungen min får du aldrig

The wolf howls in the night forest

Vargen ylar i nattens skog

Howls of hunger and lamentation

Ylar av hunger och klagan

But I'll give it a pig's tail

Men jag ska ge'n en grisasvans

That fits in wolf stomachs

Sånt passar i vargamagar

You wolf, you wolf, don't come here

Du varg, du varg, kom inte hit

You will never have my child

Ungen min får du aldrig

You wolf, you wolf, don't come here

Du varg, du varg, kom inte hit

You will never have my child

Ungen min får du aldrig

The wolf howls in the night forest

Vargen ylar i nattens skog

He wants to, but can't sleep

Han vill, men kan inte sova

Hunger tears his wolf belly

Hungern river hans vargabuk

And it's cold in his living room

Och det är kallt i hans stova

You wolf, you wolf, don't come here

Du varg, du varg, kom inte hit

You will never have my child

Ungen min får du aldrig

You wolf, you wolf, don't come here

Du varg, du varg, kom inte hit

You will never have my child

Ungen min får du aldrig

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Billie Thibodeau's avatar

I was looking forward to this one. Incredible reporting. Thank you!

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Lea's avatar

Transport some wolves to Sacramento. Might change some minds.

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Sarah Garrison's avatar

Whoa. This is really interesting and informative. I hope Siskiyou Co famers and families find a way to protect themselves from the wolves. I’m wondering, if the Elk population in Pt Reyes needed protecting, but then farmers got kicked off their land, how is it helpful to protect the herds of deer and elk necessary to sustain wolves appetites? Maybe Northern CA in the article is more in reference to North of the Bay Area and not including the Bay? Anyhow, learned lots. Thank you.

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