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A PACK of wolves roaming Yellowstone Park, one of North America’s largest
natural reserves, has set politicians and ranchers in the US fighting like
. . . well, a pack of wolves. An act of Congress may be required to resolve
the debate, which was stirred up by a plan to introduce up to 150 of the
endangered animals into Yellowstone and other areas of wilderness.

Last week, Senator James McClure of Idaho, a long-time opponent of environmental
activists, surprised them by introducing legislation to return three breeding
pairs of wolves to two wilderness areas spanning parts of Idaho, Montana
and Wyoming. The bill ‘strikes a middle ground’ between ranchers near the
parks who fear losing sheep and cattle to wolf packs, and environmentalists,
says McClure.

Wolves that wander outside the protected areas, each of which cover
about a million hectares, would no longer be protected and would be treated
as predators.

Another bill, introduced by Wayne Owens of Utah, says that the Park
Service has enough scientific evidence favouring reintroduction. The bill
calls for an environmental impact statement that would start the process
of reintroduction.

Wolves have been almost completely eliminated from the wild in North
America except in Alaska and Canada. Defenders of Wildlife, a group trying
to reintroduce them, supports the actions in Congress. Ranchers do not.
The Montana Stock Growers Association, for example, predicts that the wolves
will wander outside the parks and, in Montana alone, would kill up to 1000
livestock a year.

Biologists with the National Park Service disagree. In a study delivered
last week, they found no scientific grounds for refusing to bring the wolves
back. The study argues that wolves will kill few livestock and will thin
herds of elk that have grown too large to be sustained in protected areas.

The report, requested by Congress, may speed up a plan by the Park Service
to reintroduce the wolf. The plan has been held up because of ranchers’
objections and, say officials of the Park Service, the need for more research.

Ironically, it was the government that practically exterminated the
wolf in the US. In the 1920s, government hunters trying to raise the number
of deer, elk and moose systematically slaughtered wolves.