Wolf Wars

Rating:
Summary: Woof, woof
Review: WOLF WARS is the short (170 pages), inside story by conservationist Hank Fischer on the restoration of wolves to Yellowstone National Park. Curiosity inspired me to buy the book after visiting the park last October, during which time I thought I saw a wolf crossing a snow-covered clearing way off in the distance. It was definitely a large canine. Well, perhaps it was only Sergeant Preston's dog King on a mission for the RCMP.

To make a short story even shorter, WOLF WARS briefly summarizes the successful effort to eradicate the wolf from the western US at the turn of the last century, then reviews the recent, also successful, federal effort to re-establish wolves in that same region. The best chapters are the first, which describes the live capture of wolves in Alberta, Canada, and the last, which describes their subsequent release into YNP in 1995. In between, Fischer recounts ad nauseam the 20-year battle fought in the US Congress and the courts to design, popularize, legitimize and implement the plan to bring the animals back in the face of rabid opposition from the region's cattle and sheep ranchers. This relatively lengthy section focusing chiefly on government infighting was truly eye-glazing stuff, and best left to bureaucrats-in-training.

Yes, reading this book did teach me something - always a good thing in itself. But, a simple 10-page pamphlet would have sufficed.