Great article in Demarcated Landscapes rejects the dominion of ranchers over the rest of us-
“. . . along comes this opinion piece from the Salt Lake City Tribune suggesting that if ranchers can’t make peace with the lobo, then the lobo cannot be recovered.
…in the battle between our deep-seated fears and our hopes, the wolves bear the greatest burden. There is no new narrative of coexistence, of respect for all creatures on the land. We seem stuck in the stories of the old days, when wolves were the enemy that must be eliminated.
Until we change that perception, wolves in the Southwest won’t have a prayer
Yeah, well, you know what? Fuck that. Let’s change the perception that ranchers have any say in the matter instead. Let’s let the new power- the power of the majority of voters who want wolves back on the landscape (democracy) and the power of ecological common sense (that predators are important- duh!) be the new hegemonic force. People can’t make a living with their cows wandering around in wolf country? Then take a buy-out.
Read the rest . . . . Mexican wolf recovery: a classic hegemonic struggle? Demarcated Landscapes.
Sadly, Arizona Game and Fish just voted to support delisting the Mexican wolf, of which only 40 are left. Game and Fish abandoning gray wolves. By Steve Robinson Editorial Sounding Board. Arizona Daily Sun.
The fact that they would support delisting when there are only 40 animals shows the number of wolves is an irrelevant issue. This is a cultural battle between us and those who just assume they have some right to push us around — those who hold the hegemony.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
No link for this as it was sent via email:
Dec. 10, 2010
Arizona Game and Fish pleased by decision to release male wolf in eastern Arizona
http://outdoornewsdaily.com/index.php/archives/15565
Thanks for expressing my outrage too, Ralph. Anyone who thinks the west is an idyllic wild wonderland teeming with wildlife hasn’t looked closely. The Rancher Mafia is running the show and any critter they don’t like gets rubbed out. Last summer we travelled around the west and every single valley- every single one- was packed with cows. Then we went into the mountains to camp and the streams were hammered sterile and the plants were annihilated and gunshots echoed and we had to step over the cow piles right in the National Forest campgrounds. Meanwhile poaching is responsible for half the wildlife takes and people who are cops, politicians and ranchers are all in on it. SSS is endemic to the Rancher Mafia culture. Imagine having that kind of attitude towards the problems we all face in our neighborhoods. Those ranchers who give a damn about God’s creation know damn well to keep their heads down and their mouths closed. I am disgusted by the bumper stickers and the flag licking and the religious fervor all to justify destruction and profit. Now they’re trying to decimate the Endangered Species Act and it’s looking like it could happen. 40 southern wolves left and they want them de-listed. Fucking nightmare in America.
This past fall, a tally of the public correspondence in response to the proposed changes to The Oregon Wolf Plan showed 372 supporters of wolf recovery and only 53 opponents – that’s seven times more supporters than detractors and does not include a chain email signed by 21,693 supporters. Most of the amended rules in the recently updated Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan addressed the concerns of these few ranchers while the concerns of the majority of commentors on the plan were largely ignored. How do we stop a handful of welfare ranchers from holding the entire Oregon wolf recovery program hostage?
Shadowcat: It is like that almost everywhere you can find a predator like a Wolf. With the exception in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, where the beliefs are somewhat neutral, most other places are in favor of protection of any sub-species of Wolves by large margins, but as long as the money keeps raking in from ranchers and hunters to government officials and hunting organizations, it will always be this way as you stated in your comment. I remember reading an article a few months back where the general public in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Washington and Oregon surveyed on their opinions on the issue of Wolves, and in all states besides, I believe it was Utah, more then 72% of the people were in favor of conservating the Gray Wolves and Mexican Gray Wolves, and Utah was close to 68%.
All you have to do is send some serious time living around wolves to have a sense that numbers need to be limited. In time these states will hate wolves also.
Was there ever a release of Mexican wolves south of the border like was discusses a while back?