Take a moment and close your eyes and listen to the sounds of the past. The chill in the air of a winter night, the sky clear like a black canvas, speckled with the shining motes of stars and the disk of the full moon. Silence surrounding all until it is broken by the howl of the wolf, carried upon the wind, a long drone, calling out to all that can hear it and in a moment gone. Gone until it is picked up by other voices, each carrying the tune farther, from ridge to valley, from forest to grove, each creature carrying the haunting song, sung out from raised muzzles, each voice lifted to bring some majestic praise to the wild.



One hundred years ago, two hundred thousands wolves roamed the wild lands of the Americas. This land was their domain and they ruled it well. Their song echoing in the night, from pack to pack, from muzzle to muzzle. In warning and in greeting, they sung to one another, to the moon and to the stars. Over time, their song grew quieter; it reached less far with each passing year. In decades there would be whole states who would not hear their song, soon it would be whole regions until there where only a handful of a hundred singers left, the rest hunted without mercy, driven back into the supposed protection of our national parks until only a fraction remained.



It would take a great effort on the parts of their protectors, Lawyers, rangers, caretakers and more, to shield the wolves from the rest of us, the hunters, trappers, furriers, the pleasure seeking weekend warriors. But through those efforts, the handful of hundreds of wolves where able to climb back, slowly over the course of a decade and more so that their numbers where raised to that of 1500. As their numbers grew they began to leave the protected parks and reclaim what slivers of territory they once possessed, moving safely and freely under the blanket of protection offered by a law. States whose night skies, whose stars had not heard the night song of the wolf for over half a century could once again hear their choir of the night, bringing hope that perhaps things would be all right and these creatures would not be lost to us, our children and our children's children, That their song and their lives would continue to amazing and intrigue us.



Take a moment and close your eyes and listen to the sounds of tomorrow. The chill of the winter night given way to the warmth of the morning, Blue canvas of sky painted with clouds, the world below flush with the whiteness of fresh snow. The silence of the still morning air broken by the shrill noise of a mechanical beast as it stalks through the skies, set with a single purpose. The wolf is still here, but now it is running, flushed out and fleeing from the beast in the air, running, its lungs bursting to take it breathe so that it might continue its panicked escape from the thing it can not hope to outrun. From the air a single thunderous note rings out and in a moment, the escape of the wolf is halted, no more can it run, the white palette of snow turning red with the stain of its blood. The shield of a law, removed from it.



We went from two hundred thousand wolves to little more then a few hundred in the span of a century. In the distance of a decade we nursed their struggling numbers back to over a thousand, and now in less then a month we will start the process that will take those struggling numbers back down to little more then three hundred. As you read this, state governments are already plotting aerial hunting parties and other sinister ways of culling the wolf packs from their forests, using planes, guns, poisons and more. Some have even set their plans on killing 80% of the wolves within their borders.



There is still hope however, for that future, the one where the song of the wolf is lost to the world has not happened. There is still time to raise your own voice, to howl out your protests and bring a stop to this before it can even start. If you wish to howl, please read on and add your voice.

Narrative by
Journal Entry: [link]
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Two days ago I was informed by a close friend of mine that the Bush Administration had made the decision to remove the northern Rockies gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act. This means that, pending a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), in as soon as 30 days, the legal culling of wild wolf populations will begin.

What brings me to tears is that these people do not understand the true damage they are doing to the wolf population. Every individual that is killed may have been carrying valuable genetic variety that would have allowed the species as a whole to adapt given strenuous survival situations, such as natural disasters, climate change, or disease. In short, the senseless killing may indirectly cause the extinction of the whole species.

To me, this isn't just about the wolves any longer. This is about the direct disrespect of all that is living but non-human. Are we so successful a species that, in the end, we fail? How have we forgotten the rarity and value of all life that inhabits this earth?

Please, help. Do all that you can. Recycle, plant a tree, volunteer at your local wildlife or nature group, or write a letter to congress calling for the strengthening of the Endangered Species Act are just some of the things you can do to help. Do it for all of the animals, plants, fungi, protists, and bacteria, the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the "ugly". For the prokaryotes and eukaryotes alike. For our future, and our children's futures.

Read the article from the Defenders of Wildlife website here: [link]
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