Secret wolf ‘planting?’

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) Private citizens will begin reintroducing wolves in Yellowstone National Park if the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan is not implemented, according to the cofounder of the Earth First environmental group.

“I do believe there are enough people out there that want to see the wolf reintroduced that one way or another it’s going to get done,” Howie Wolke told the Casper Star-Tribune.

Wolke charged mainstream environmental groups with “bending over backwards to accomodate ranchers” on the wolf issue, while ranchers and others who oppose the reintroduction have been “unyielding, uncompromising, irrational and extreme in their position on the issue.”

Supporters of the reintroduction have argued that the wolf is the “missing link” in Yellowstone’s ecosystem and would be held within the park through the use of radio-controlled collars.

But ranchers charge that there is no way to keep the carnivores inside park boundaries and the animals would pose a threat to livestock grazing nearby.

“I’m getting tired of hearing groups agree that it’s OK to shoot wolves threatening livestock outside (Yellowstone),” said Wolke. Wolves “have a right to live and thrive in their natural habitat. Human economic activity should adapt itself to coexist with natural forms, including the wolf.

“It’s arrogant for people to believe that it’s OK for their economic gain to be at the expense of other life forms and the ecosystem as a whole,” he continued.

National Park Service Director William Penn Mott has put the reintroduction on hold in response to vehement opposition n to the proposal from Wyoming’s congressional delegates.