Earlier this month I had what might have been the best two week stretch of my short tenure at Oregon Wild.  I had to go to Diamond Lake just north of Crater Lake National Park.  Then I had to go to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming!

In reality, the Crater Lake trip was a bit of a bummer -- we were there checking out the D-Bug Timber Sale -- but this is to be a bummer-free blog, so I’ll focus on my trip to Wyoming.

Oregon Wild is part of a loose coalition of about 20 organizations called The Western Wolf Coalition.  After being extirpated, the goal of the coalition is to return wolves to their rightful place in the landscape of the American West. 

Coming all the way from Portland, made us the most distant group in attendance, and I like to think that our attendance was mutually beneficial.

Oregon Wild represents a constituency that values all native species, and believes that they have a right to exist and thrive in their native habitat.  Because I live in a wolf-friendly part of a relatively wolf-friendly state, it can sometimes be easy to forget that there are people…lots of people…who fear wolves and would be only too pleased to repeat history and kill every last wolf in the West.

After an absence of nearly 60 years, wolves are just now beginning to return to our state.  Sadly the first few were shot by poachers, and you can bet they won’t be the last.  Though our state has less than a dozen wolves, there are those who would like to make it easier to kill this still very endangered species.

As one of the new states to the wolf-recovery scene, it was good to get the perspective from veterans of wolf-recovery.  Since wolves returned to Yellowstone, there have been successes, mistakes, conflicts, and resolutions, and lots of lessons learned.

Some of the best stories were those of collaboration between open-minded ranchers, hunters, and wildlife advocates.  Given a chance, and done properly, it’s clear that non-lethal control of wolves works.

Sadly, there are still lots of folks out there who would rather shoot a wolf than be good stewards of the land.  In those cases, we can’t back down.  Wolves are a native species and play an important role in a functioning ecosystem.  In any case, even in the western states where wolves have "recovered", elk numbers are rising and wolves represent less than 1% of livestock losses.

Talking wolves with a great group of advocates in the shadow of the Tetons isn’t bad.  But staying at the Historic Murie Ranch was a particular treat!  It was here that the Murie’s took ideas like the Wilderness Act and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and turned them into reality.  Though owned by the National Park Service, the Ranch is run by The Murie Center as a living museum to honor the lives and work of the Muries.

Rather than become embalmed as a stuffy tourist attraction where bored kids jump out of minivans to peer over velvet ropes into cabins where history was made, the Center facilitates the work of people who strive to build on the legacy of the Muries for the betterment of the world and all that inhabit it.

During breaks at the center I was able to walk the grounds of the Ranch.  During a few of those walks, I came across a young bull moose that had found a nice bedding spot about 10 yards from my cabin.  Though he seemed friendly, I thought it wiser to keep my distance.  I also spent the better part of an hour sitting on a log less than 15 feet from a Great Gray Owl.

The majestic puffball of a bird was so unfazed that she caught her dinner and ate it even closer than that.  As I observed her, it was a nice opportunity to take a deep breath and think more deeply about the issues we had come to discuss.

The Murie Ranch was a place of peace and reflection, but it was also a place for inspiration and action.  There’s an old Russian proverb that says the strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf.  It’s a great metaphor for a lot of things.  The easy one here is to use it to describe the coalition.

However, thinking a little more deeply about it, I think it is a good metaphor for our place in the landscape.  By definition, the study of ecology tells us that all things – living and non-living – are linked.  We need to not simply tolerate the existence of other species on the planet (including the big bad wolf).  We need to understand that it is in fact in our best interests to do so.