New Book by Cat Urbigkit on the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Program
Cat Urbigkit is the author/webmistress of Wolf Watch [here], a website we have long linked to. Wolf Watch presents:
… up-to-date, accurate information about what is happening with wolves, focusing on wolves in the Rocky Mountains, but referring to wolf happenings outside our region when there is some local relevance. Rather than an agenda-driven advocacy site, this is the place to be for the facts about wolves, with a strong focus on what’s happening on the ground.
Now Cat has written a new book, Yellowstone Wolves – A Chronicle of the Animals, the People, and the Politics, McDonald and Woodward Publishing. We hope to post a review soon in the W.I.S.E. Colloquium: Wildlife Sciences. In the meantime, the following is the press release from McDonald and Woodward Publishing:
“Yellowstone Wolves” provides a unique perspective on what is the most visible and contentious wildlife management experiment-and its historic, social, economic, political, bureaucratic, and emotional dimensions-taking place in the American West today. It is a review of the persecution, and possible survival, of the native wolves of the northern Rocky Mountains of the United States; it is a detailed chronicle of the debate over the legality and propriety of introducing wolves from Canada into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho during the mid-1990s; and it is an account of the spread of wolves, following their introduction, from Yellowstone and central Idaho into surrounding areas and the tensions created by the movement of these large predators into what are primarily ranch lands.
The national protection of plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act causes much debate across the United States, Canada, and in other parts of the world. Several US states have histories of implementing mammal protection programs, as described in the Act. Some of these programs have had success while others have not.
One such program regarding wolves became a very controversial issue during the early and mid-1990s. This book chronicles the federal “reintroduction” program of non-native Canadian wolves to the Northern Rocky Mountains of the United States (i.e., in the states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming). It looks at events prior to the program’s implementation as well as its consequences, both positive and negative.
A new controversy has resulted from the Canadian wolves’ introduction into the area. They have rapidly multiplied and spread beyond the region and have since become nuisance animals, threatening livestock, elk and bison. The previously banned hunting of these wolves, along with their natural tendency to multiply rapidly, contributed to their over-population and migration. As a consequence, their protected status has been removed and the wolves are now being hunted.
In Yellowstone Wolves, author Cat Urbigkit details the process through which the original proposal to “reintroduce” wolves into the greater Yellowstone National Park region was fought, yet became implemented, and resulted in another controversial issue. Such an undertaking has historic, scientific, social, economic, legal, political, and bureaucratic dimensions which converge and compete for influence and expression. All of these interests are presented in Yellowstone Wolves, and the details of their interaction are described in a narrative that reveals how such a complex interaction of vested interests can play out.
The book provides an unequalled background of the history of the native wolf, and frames the recently implemented circumstances of wolf management in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming—where wolves are now simultaneously managed as protected resources, game, and unwanted predators. This book should be of interest to wolf enthusiasts regardless of which facet of the debate they might find most meaningful and in whatever part of the world they inhabit.
Cat Urbigkit is uniquely qualified to write this book, as she had an intimate and diverse experience with the issue. During the beginning phases of the wolf reintroduction program, she was an advocate for the conservation of what were presumed to be remaining populations of wolves native to the Yellowstone area (a smaller subspecies of wolf different from the larger Canadian wolf). She also covered the debate as a newspaper reporter and became one of the litigants who sued the US Fish & Wildlife Service to prevent the reintroduction of wolves in the Yellowstone and central Idaho area.
Ronald Nowak, an internationally recognized mammalogist and canid expert, was employed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service during the administration of the reintroduction program. He provides an authoritative context in the book’s Foreword, and speaks of the book’s contribution to the larger construct of endangered species management and its global significance. Mr. Nowak’s perspective on the United States’ management of biological diversity and heritage in this country, as well as our adherence to the mandates of the Endangered Species Act, also contributes to the placement of this book into the larger context of wildlife protection and management. His appreciation of the unique perspective that Cat Urbigkit provides in Yellowstone Wolves is also included in the Foreword.
The ISBN for this title is 978-0-939923-70-0, softcover and the book retails for $29.95.
More detailed information can be found [here]. Congratulations and kudos to Cat Urbigkit.
