Friends or Foes (Wolves +)

*Note: In late April a Cattleman’s newspaper ran a front page Ode to the retirement of Mr. Ed Bangs the USFWS Wolf Coordinator.  When I wrote the following to the editor of that paper the editor replied that –

“I would like to point out that the article was reprinted with permission from the Helena Independent in Montana and no one on staff at XXXX wrote the article like your below piece suggests. The reason I, the editor, chose to run the Helena article is because it was profiling the retirement of man who has had an impact on the ranching sector.”

“Secondly, the article writer interviewed both sides (the environmentalist and rancher) so I personally feel both sides were represented”

The article was decidedly pro-wolf and pro-federal power but that is neither here nor there.  The Agricultural media, like the hunting and fishing “conservation” organizations, and the state and federal “wildlife” agencies are no longer ours.  They are staffed by and represent people and interests opposed to what they ostensibly represent in hopes of when hunting, fishing, grazing, animal ownership, timber management, and rural values are all eliminated, they will switch jobs like Eddie Bauer switching from outdoor gear to golf shirts.

This Cattleman’s paper is no different than:

-State and federal bureaucrats burning bird nesting and winter cover on public lands bought with bird hunters dollars to provide birds for bird hunting.

-Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever remaining silent while public land bird cover is destroyed and game bird numbers decrease.

-Trout Unlimited support for federal “Invasive Species” authority described as necessary for kudzu and zebra mussels but intended to eliminate brown trout, Great Lakes salmon, and western largemouth bass along with pheasants, Hungarian partridge, chukars, and other game animal etceteras.

Until there is a dramatic makeover, we are living proof of the old Pogo observation, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Jim - 27 May 2011  

A SHAMEFUL PAEAN 

I recently came across your misguided front-page article “Man who led federal wolf recovery effort retiring” in the 27 April edition.  The featured, folksy picture of USFWS employee Mr. Bangs and the adulation of his federal peers (Niemeyer and Jimenez) and his fellow partners-in-crime (Suzanne Stone of Defenders of Wildlife and Carolyn Sime of Montana FWP) found in the article is beyond belief especially when found in a rural newspaper, much less a Cattleman’s paper. 

Granted, Mr. Bangs is “kind of funny”, got “federal funding”, and “set the template for what came later on”; what came “later on” is exactly the measure we should use in judging him.  Federal forced wolf introductions and protection in the Southeast, the Southwest, Upper Rockies, and Great Lakes plus all the surrounding states and the states surrounding the surrounding states that they are intentionally being spread to have absolutely nothing to do with “science”.  These wolf impositions are a coercive national program that evolved from an unjust federal law, the Endangered Species Act that has grown the careers of Mr. Bangs et al, the power and budgets of federal agencies especially USFWS, the rapacious agendas of environmental and animal rights extremism, and the careers of numerous federal politicians over the past 40 years while eroding Constitutional guarantees regarding private property and the legitimate role of the federal government.  Hidden agendas being fed here range from reducing hunting opportunities and therefore gun ownership, to further eliminating any renewable natural resource (forest timber, range grazing, wildlife and fish management) management and use on federal and state lands, and depressing rural private land values as ranching, farming, logging, hunting, and fishing disappear.  

Not only cattlemen but hunters, trappers, fishermen, retired grandparents, public land users, walkers, joggers, farmers, trappers, campers, dog owners, , property owners, local governments, state governments, rural residents, children, Constitutionalists, taxpayers concerned with government spending, those concerned with cultural pursuits and rural traditions, those concerned about the shift of state F&W agencies from state priorities to being federal subcontractors, those concerned about the decline of state Universities from centers of scientific inquiry to generators of federal propaganda with a patina of “science” and all  Americans worried about the growth of federal power into every nook and cranny of our lives – all are beginning to comprehend the emerging evil that he left behind.  

How is this true?  Let me “list the ways” that this man’s actions, like some German railroad engineer that “only followed orders” and “did his job”, are destroying not only the American cattle industry but rural American economies, rural families, rural culture and traditions, and our Constitutional guarantees:

Wolves are increasingly killing and maiming cattle, sheep, and other livestock.  Whether Bangs and his cohort think this is miniscule, it is not miniscule to those that own them.  Payments for losses, especially as government funds disappear, never were meant to be and never will be continued now that wolves are all but out of control.  Additional costs such as the loss of dogs as useful in rounding up summer cattle in rough country and constant harrassment5 of stock and owners by wolves make the losses to the industry intolerable to say the least.

Wolves have decimated many of the elk, deer, and moose herds (and hunting of same with all its attendant revenue for conservation and rural communities) in the Northwest and Great Lakes.  Many big game cows and calves (like many livestock) are killed and go uneaten or left alive and half-eaten as groups are killed by a pack and wolves that become satiated and move on.

Thousands of dogs (watchdogs, trailing dogs, bird dogs, cattle dogs, sheep dogs, bird dogs, and family- pet dogs have been killed and eviscerated in rural yards in front of children and while “working” for owners in rural locations.

Wolves recently killed and partially consumed a college student in Saskatchewan and a jogging school teacher in Alaska.  Wolves are hanging out by New Mexico school bus stops and following ranch kids home.  They are attacking soccer moms and dog walkers in urban areas in Alaska.  Habituated wolves in Minnesota tear into backyard snow “forts” recently built by visiting grandchildren and collared wolves have been verified not only travelling hundreds of miles but also visiting the same ranch and farmyards every night.  Women no longer walk to mailboxes and children no longer go fishing alone after school or camping with friends on the weekend.  Grandchildren visit grandparents in wolf country less frequently, if at all.  Archery hunters, woodland bird hunters, trappers, rural hikers, campers and bank or wading fishermen among others are increasingly reluctant to pursue their traditions as reports of wolf attacks and wolf depredations mount.  Rural home sites and retirement locations drop in value as potential owners reject living there due to fears for their and their visitors’ safety.

Wolves are vectors (carry) of more than 30 serious and deadly diseases like tapeworms, brucellosis, rabies, anthrax, and foot-and-mouth.  None of these were mentioned in the federal introduction documents and now threats such as deadly tapeworm eggs are infesting yards, carpets, floors, and vegetation throughout much of rural America. (See my testimony before the Oregon Legislature Agriculture Committee in 2010 on this subject.)

Wolves, cited in your article as “captured in Canada” and “released in Yellowstone Park” by Mr. Bangs and his partners-in-crime and federal cohorts were financed by $45 to 60 Million stolen in two years from the Pittman-Robertson excise taxes on arms and ammunition.  The money was stolen by USFWS bureaucrats when Congress refused to fund the wolf introductions.  By law those funds may only be used by state fish and wildlife agencies for state programs.  This theft was confirmed by a 1999 General Accounting Office Audit Report to the US House of Representatives’ Resources Committee.  No federal employees were prosecuted and the state agencies never requested replacement of the funds stolen from them (actually you and me.)  The reason for this was that by 2000 state agencies had become simply “AAA Teams” for federal agencies, federal programs, federal funding, and radical national agendas; plus an intervening Presidential election caused such turbulence that any prosecution of former Administration appointees would have merely inflamed partisan political that everyone wanted to calm down.  Like so much of this “Endangered Species” scam, federal expenditures running into the hundreds of millions (billions?) are unavailable or as reliable as Enron audit reports.

How ironic that you quote Niemeyer boasting that Bangs would “fend off bureaucrats” and “deal with all the ‘unpleasantries’ in the pre-introduction arena”.  Those same enforcement “bureaucrats” that arrest you and me for even shooting at, much less killing, a wolf in our yard; or that arrest you or me for “smuggling” imported wildlife because you have not completed Form 3-177: those same USFWS Special Agents required no such required Form from Mr. Bangs et al when importing those wolves (from Canada).  So where were they captured?  Did they have a permit to capture, transport, import, and release “Endangered” wildlife, i.e. “wolves”?  When did they enter the US?  Where did they enter the US?  How many entry points or entry times were there? 

Despite the silence of veterinarians about wolves as disease vectors (horse and dog customer reactions and career implications?), and the perpetual lies about “no documented wolf attacks on humans” (where have these wolf “experts” been all these years as radicals pumped out this nonsense?); wolves are deadly to humans on a large and persistent scale. How many must they kill or maim or infect to gain attention?  Read Will Graves’, “Wolves In Russia” and watch current reports from Kazakhstan, India, Georgia, Tajikistan, and other wolf “ecosystems”.  Regarding the history of North America, read Young and Goldman’s, “Wolves of North America”.  Smallpox, rabies, and attacks on Indian villages, military forts, and towns are all documented.  Undocumented attacks on isolated individuals and homesteaders and the unknown (at the time) results of wolves spreading deadly diseases and infection no doubt number in the many thousands, if not more.

Yellowstone National Park was not chosen because of “science” to be a release point.  It was chosen as the wolf release site because unlike all but a handful of National Parks, it was never under any state jurisdiction since its founding; therefore it is under what is called “Exclusive Federal Jurisdiction”.  That is to say, no state has anything to say about what or how or when the federal government does anything within those bounds.  Once it was done there, Indian Reservations, National Wildlife Refuges, and BLM land wolf-releases went unquestioned by state governments told that “depredations would be paid for”, “wolves have never attacked people”, “wolves won’t affect hunting”, and “here are some funds to hire a few radicals to justify wolves and indoctrinate school children and ‘handle’ what Niemeyer calls people “trying to ridicule and criticize him” i.e. Bangs.

Local (County, Township, Town, etc.) governments have had nothing to say about the introduction and establishment of these deadly and destructive predators, their numbers, or distribution.  State governments have had nothing to say about the introductions, numbers, distribution, and impacts of these deadly and destructive predators.  The legal precedents established here have grown and become stepping stones for future federal wildlife overreaches meant to destroy rural America like “free-roaming buffalo”, protection of grizzlies and cougars, and the introduction of jaguars.  State and Local Authority under The Constitution and the attendant power of rural people to live their lives and raise their families in peace and “domestic Tranquility” are in tatters.  Determined and prolonged advocacy for reversing all this will take men and women with guts and a sense of the necessity of constantly defending the freedom found in The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. 

“Science” cited in your article as justifying the federal wolf debacle is akin to Margaret Sanger’s and Nazi racial characteristic “studies” about “inferior people” justifying abortion and the Holocaust: that is to say, “bunk”. 

1.      Wolves, worldwide on five continents, number in the millions.  “Endangered?”

2.      Wolf “species” is an oxymoron.  Wolves breed successfully with coyotes and all dogs: “Species?”

3.      “Red”, “Timber”, “Gray”, “Mexican”, “Eastern” wolf species are layman’s terms that once were colloquial expressions and have now become political constructs with grave societal and legal consequences.

4.      Wolves, like other species occurring from near the Equator to near the Poles are larger as they occur further north.  They have different living habits in different environments (woodland, grassy Plains, desert, scrubland, etc.).  They have different colors as natural selection encourages light colors in light environments and dark colors in dark environments.  Warbling about these being “important” or “necessary” is like spreading Nile crocodiles (very deadly to African native people) throughout Africa as being “essential” for the African “ecosystem” or scattering scorpions in USA schoolyards because they have sandboxes and scorpions “belong” there.

5.      Saying that wolves should be spread because they are a “Native Species” or to restore “The Native Ecosystem” is exactly like Nazi plans to “restore Pre-Roman plants and animals in The Third Reich”.  There is nothing better or sacred about the environment found amongst Nomadic North American tribes pre-1492 and the post-1492 environment constructed by Europeans and found today in the 2011 USA.  They are merely different and reintroduced wolves are significantly destroying the world of ranching, hunting, and rural safety that our fathers and forefathers purposely constructed for the benefit of us, our society and our Nation.  This recent pagan-like cult of worshipping “Natives”, particularly wolves, is nothing more than modern Luddite guilt about modernity “destroying” some imaginary Eden.  Environmental and animal rights agendas being implemented by capitalizing on this this guilt to drive and justify much of the federal power growth and cost of so much concern to all of us and this wolf debacle in particular.

The current “smoke and mirrors” about “delisting wolves” and “returning the management of wolves to the states” is a lie and propaganda. Extremists and federal enablers like Bangs et al are fearful that real federal budget cuts will ensnare The Endangered Species Act (as almost happened to NPR and Planned Parenthood), hence the appearance in your article of Bangs “empowering ‘his’ people” to “make decisions on the spot”.

Ask yourself, can states where wolves are “delisted”:

Reduce wolf numbers dramatically to recover big game herds? 

Eliminate livestock predation by reducing and keeping reduced wolf numbers?

Allow killing on site of wolves around homesteads or by school bus stops?

Construct wolf-free zones W of a certain highway or S of a certain road?

Use any means (considering effectiveness, cost, time periods, control over time, etc.) to reduce and keep reduced wolf numbers and distribution?

Receive federal compensation to manage federal wolves and reimburse property owners for damage and victims and relatives for wolf attacks? 

The answer to all of the above is a resounding NO!  The states are merely taking responsibility for wolves that they have NO control over; to fulfill federal mandates at the expense of state residents in a period of funding scarcity as wolves are becoming numerous, habituated and human attacks are becoming more likely.  States are meant to be the scapegoats. 

So much of what has and is happening regarding wolves is based on magical and imaginary numbers.  There is the “numbers first stated upon introduction”.  There is the numbers “stated in (take your pick here) various lawsuits”.  There is the number “FWS stated” and “the numbers in Judge (Claghorn’s) lawsuit” and “the state F&W census” and the local perceptions of local wolf population explosions where food has been available.  Numbers, numbers, numbers; all this importance for “numbers” when no one can count wolves definitively and wolves range far and wide month to month and year to year depending on food, weather, and human behavior.  The result?  Wolf lawsuits and federal enablers (Universities and state agencies) can make any population assertion they want in lawsuits and the media and who can refute them?  How can anyone refute them?

There is no other word for all the foregoing “measure” of the legacy of Bangs and his friends, their federal agency (USFWS), the radical organizations they work with and for, and the politicians that profit career-wise from all this: that word is “evil”.  Despite the disgusting appearance of success in your article from “someone” telling Bangs “how wolf scars are sexy” and how he is “an especially fun date during full moons”; all Americans should be ashamed of what has transpired. 

When a child is killed or mauled terribly or undergoing rabies shots caused by one of these federal (Bangs’?, USFWS?) wolves, as will inevitably happen, and we are being treated to how the little girl behaved “wrong” or her grandparents made some terrible mistake; remember this banter about “sexy scars” and how this guy and his chums joke “that wolves are actually kind of boring – calling them ‘just big dogs’”.  Remember how we were all too busy to admit what was happening and too scared and intimidated to do anything about something we were all paying for. 

Shakespeare must have had all this in mind over 400 years ago when he wrote the play, Julius Caesar.   When Mark Antony gives the oration at Caesar’s funeral and says, “The evil that men do lives after them” he could have been referring not only to Bangs et al and all their enablers, he could have been referring to each of us that could have and should have stopped this wolf program before they got to this pre-1900 and perhaps no-longer-manageable point - and did nothing.  Our children and grandchildren will one day think of us as many present-day Germans think of their forbearers of 80 years ago.  Your adulation for all this is stunning. 

Jim Beers

27 May 2011

If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others.  Thanks. 

Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist,
Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC.  He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands.  He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC.  He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority.  He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades. 

Jim Beers is available to speak or for consulting at   jimbeers7@comcast.net