Hays: Extinction is not a solution
Before European settlers arrived in North America, wolves (Canis Lupus) occupied the entire expanse of the continent from the Arctic to Central America and from the East Coast to the West Coast. It is difficult to definitively say how many wolves were on the land, but estimates range from 250,000 to 2 million. In fact, the wolf was the most widely distributed mammal in North America. Indigenous people got along with and even revered the wolf. Then came the massive forces of European settlers.
In the infancy of the United States, economic forces were pushing for and creating personal independence. Becoming financially wealthy was the goal but always at the expense of the natural world. Cities were created, dams were built, roads were constructed: all in the context of resource withdrawals from nature. Nature was a limitless bounty until it wasn’t. Don’t get in the way of the market forces. Air and water were infinite sinks where pollution of all types could be dumped and forgotten about. Fertile soil was a certainty and required no consideration. Wildlife was there for the taking and any species that might impede progress was quickly and efficiently shot, trapped, or poisoned into extinction or close to it. Bison, wolves, grizzly bears, coyotes, black bears, essentially all the apex predators, were branded as the enemy of our success, they were demonized, and we did our best to exterminate them.
Today, we operate as misguided gods thinking that we have the right to preserve and enhance our condition at the expense of the rest of creation. The presumption of the livestock industry is strictly an outlook of utilitarianism centered solely around their benefit. They completely fail to consider any worth of a species beyond the species that they graze in the field outside their front door. If we are going to solve our differences about how to use public land and public wildlife, the ranching industry must change their ideas and opinions about the survival of apex predators.
Matt Hays
Colorado Springs
