The gray wolf has been on the endangered species list for decades now, and for good reason, as hunters and farmers in the northeast picked them off one by one until their population dwindled to near extinction. Growing weary of their livestock being carried off by the wolves, farmers had no issues with simply killing them off, as they saw no purpose in the destructive animal. There was not much love for this animal until revitalization efforts began in the 1990's when 300 wolves were brought down from Canada to Yellowstone National Park in order to interbreed and once again build their population under new laws protecting them. Now, with their numbers nearing 1,600 in only a couple decades, many of these laws have been lifted in Montana, Idaho, and parts of Washington, Oregon, and Utah. Hunters are allowed to kill as many wolves as they want, so long as the population stays at a certain level. However, in all other states gray wolves are still listed as an endangered species because, as Mary Ellen Hannibal puts it, "It turns out that, far from being freeloaders on the top of the food chain, wolves have a powerful effect on the well-being of the ecosystems around them — from the survival of trees and riverbank vegetation to, perhaps surprisingly, the health of the populations of their prey." So these animals are not simply beasts of destruction.
I think that it is very good that there are laws protecting the native species of our nation and, consequently, the ecosystems on which we rely as humans. Without laws regulating animal populations and the environment, capitalism would drive humans to destroy everything natural and symbiotic in this world. It is good that people are beginning to realize the sense in the Native American's views on the world around us. We are just passing through, it is up to us to preserve and pass on the world in no worse shape than we had found it. Without preservation of nature, there could be no future.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/03/us/for-gray-wolves-a-success-story-not-without-detractors.html
I completely agree with you on this, Elisa. We definitely need to preserve nature now for the people of the future, or there won't be much of one!
ReplyDeleteIt is important to do what we can to preserve our surroundings, we used to be ignorant but know that we understand the consequences of our actions we need to stop harming our enviornment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Elisa. It's ignorant to think that we can violate and desecrate our environment without experiencing any detrimental effects. This is one issue that our central government needs to get involved in: we need to have a common law protecting our environment, regardless of its effects on the economy.
ReplyDeleteIt is imperative that we keep our environment safe. We must understand that our surroundings are where our children will live, and their children, and their children, etc. We cannot turn a blind eye to issues such as these, for even if cataclysmic events do not arise in our lifetime, they will undoubtably wreck living conditions for future generations.
ReplyDeleteA lot of animals are close to extinction because of mindless hunting, habitat loss, and the fact that many people actually realize how important and unique they are. Examples could be the bison and beavers that were hunted to near extinction in the past. The wolves are so close to becoming extinct and now hat they're gaining some ground they shouldn't be ok to kill.
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