This week, as we await the imminent release by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of its decision to delist wolves in Montana and Idaho, I was reminded by a scar on my hand - the result of a old climbing accident - of a lesson relevant to wolf managers as much as myself. It is a lesson about humility: the importance of operating with the right intentions and within one's abilities. 

The delisting decision will precipitate the killing of hundreds of wolves- possibly 600 or more in the two states.  While wolves in Wyoming will remain on the endangered species list, management of wolves in Idaho and Montana will be returned to the states.  The states, full of bravado about being ready to manage wolves without federal oversight, are poised to over reach.  Rumors are already circulating that in Idaho, Wildlife Services is stepping up its efforts to "preemptively" kill wolves at Idaho's behest - wolves that could very possibly include pregnant or lactating females and even pups. On the state's hit list are 25 packs as well as roughly 120 wolves in the Clearwater.  This "preemptive" killing program is separate from the 300-plus wolves that Idaho plans to kill in hunts this fall.  Add to this an estimated 100 illegally killed wolves (this figure from last year was recently published in FWS' annual wolf report), then mix in Montana's proposed wolf hunt of 75 wolves

You don't have to be an expert to know that killing 600 or more wolves out of a total population of 1600 is a big problem, promising to set back the hard-fought progress toward recovery.  The truth is that we can recover wolves and delist them-it's a goal that is within our reach.  But FWS' current plan doesn't get us there. 

And, because the plan also fails to guarantee resources needed to help reduce wolf/livestock depredations, the plan doesn't do a lot to help ranchers either.  To fill the funding short-fall for wolf management, the states have been calling for federal government bail-out money to manage wolves once they are removed from the federal list.  But that's not the way the system works.  States get federal funds to help recover imperiled species that are on the endangered species list.  The federal funds disappear after a species is delisted.  With the current fiscal crisis, what are the chances that taxpayers will choose to spend millions more on wolves?  Like so many financial institutions we've heard about recently, the states want to have their cake and eat it too.

There's a lesson to be learned here about over-reaching, being overconfident and losing common sense.  I learned it 30 years ago, climbing in the Tetons.  I was young and fit, and wanted to show my boyfriend that I could lead a 5.7 pitch on Mount Moran.  I looked down onto the valley of Jackson Hole, more than 5,000 feet below. Bad mistake - the exposure nearly took my breath away. The first part of the pitch went pretty quickly, but then I bogged down in a crack in the granite.  I jammed one fist into it, clenched it, a good solid hold.  With the left hand, I gripped a small rock nub of granite and moved up.  I lost my grip and fell, hanging on my jammed fist.  Shaking, I got my feet underneath me again and placed a chock right above my head, clipping the rope through.  I started up again and my foot slipped.  Suddenly, I pealed off and fell below the chock, pulling it out.  I sailed below the piece underneath that, falling about 20 feet before I was stopped by my boyfriend's belay.  It seemed like eternity for him to talk me down to his ledge, where he took over my lead.

I should have known better.  In retrospect, I was not ready to lead that pitch.  I was trying to prove a point and make an impression.  That's not the right attitude for climbing-or for wolf management.  The scar on my right hand still reminds me of the need for humility, a realistic appraisal of one's abilities, and maintaining the right intention.  We don't want to scar the successful wolf recovery work accomplished so far, by letting overconfident states take the lead too early.