Theodore Roosevelt, Wildlife Conservation, Democracy

Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the "the game belongs to the people."  So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people.  The "greatest good for the greatest number" applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction.  Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations.  The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.

Theodore Roosevelt, A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open, 1916.

TR's powerful quote from many decades ago equating wildlife conservation with democracy is still quite timely.  Presently, some in the West are clamoring to kill as many wolves as possible now that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has removed Endangered Species Act protections from wolves in the Northern Rockies. 

My colleague Louisa Willcox recently published an op-ed in the Billings Gazette on the problems with prematurely removing Northern Rockies wolves from the endangered species list.  Sadly, but not surprisingly, some proud members of the anti-wolf crowd immediately chimed in with some angry, threatening, colorful comments.  Here are my two favorites (unedited):

Louisa, you have the mistaken impression we want a wolf recovery program, we will continue to shoot these varmints at every opportunity and we don't care what you think about it.

SSS, Shoot, Shovel, and Shutup. This is the farmers and ranchers plans for control if government fails to do it for them. Trust me, Montana is vast and game wardens are few and they do not patrol private property. A rancher seeing a wolf crossing his property will not hesitate for a second to administer an anesthetic in the form of a 30-06 pill. Just something for you foam at the mouth enviro's to chew on.

Pretty disgusting comments. 

Our wildlife is our heritage.  The wolf is a native species and icon of the West, and its restoration to the Northern Rockies is one of the greatest success stories in conservation history.  We previously exterminated them from this region, and we've reduced their range in the lower forty-eight states to less than 5% of what it once was. 

What we at NRDC are doing - fighting to conserve wolves and other species in the Northern Rockies - is, in the words of TR, "democratic in spirit, purpose, and method."  We're working to preserve our wildlife heritage, so future generations can strap on a pair of hiking boots to see and hear wolves in the wild, instead of renting a DVD or library book to learn about the wolves that once roamed the Northern Rockies.

From where does this fierce hatred of wolves come?  Much of it likely stems from the various myths passed down from generation to generation in many cultures that portray wolves as evil, blood-thirsty killers of man, woman, and child - even though nothing could be further from the truth. 

Some of the hatred is cloaked in fact (e.g., wolves have killed all the elk, wolves are decimating livestock, etc.), but the truth is that the undemocratic desire to rid the West of wolves is misplaced; the rhetoric doesn't match reality.

-----

A recent story about a "serial wildlife killer" - one of the worst poachers in Montana's history - further demonstrates the relevance of TR's quote in 2009 in the West.

This undemocratic criminal was "convicted of hunting animals out of season, hunting and trapping on private land without permission, hunting at night with a spotlight, taking only the heads of animals and leaving the bodies to rot, shooting from roads, illegally guiding and outfitting hunts and hunting and fishing after his license had been suspended, according to court documents."

Following an eight-year investigation, he was convicted of four counts of hunting, fishing, trapping and wildlife violations and is rightfully headed to jail.

Echoing TR, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional investigator commented, "He's been stealing Montana's wildlife resources from everybody for years.  That's why we asked for a lifetime suspension.  He's not just stealing from hunters, he's stealing from everybody."

TR, a passionate hunter, would be outraged. 

And, in the name of wildlife conservation and democracy, so should you.

(TR photo from Free Stock Photos)

Comments