{"id":800667,"date":"2019-10-24T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=373450"},"modified":"2019-10-24T10:00:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T16:00:11","slug":"opinion-susan-knopf-i-vote-for-wolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/opinion-susan-knopf-i-vote-for-wolves\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Susan Knopf: I vote for wolves"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Susan Knopf \/ Summit Daily News<\/strong>
Susan Knopf \/ Summit Daily News<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The Sierra Club and Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund<\/a> are running a marathon. They\u2019re trying to get enough signatures to put a wolf initiative<\/a> on the ballot in 2020. According to Colorado Sierra Club, they collected 85% of
\nthe signatures needed for the Dec. 3 deadline.  <\/p>\n

To help residents learn more about this initiative and the
\nsuccessful reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park, a screening
\nof the film \u201cEpic Yellowstone: Return of the Predators\u201d is at 6:30
\np.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge. Colorado
\nSierra Club Wildlife Chair Dee Malone will answer your questions. Rocky
\nMountain Wolf Project also will screen two short films. It\u2019s free. Donations
\nare gladly accepted and recommended.<\/p>\n

Colorado
\nStop Wolf Coalition<\/a> is working against the wolf initiative<\/a>. The group believes reintroduction of wolves in
\nColorado will hurt livestock and spread disease.<\/p>\n

For the record, the research supports wolf reintroduction in
\nColorado. The facts don\u2019t support the opinions of the ranchers. It would appear
\nold legends of the \u201cbig, bad wolf\u201d are indeed responsible for creating
\nfantasy fears.<\/p>\n

One columnist<\/a> asserted the Sierra Club was presuming to be more knowledgeable than state
\nwildlife biologists, forcing the issue of wolf reintroduction, against the
\nbetter judgment of the experts.<\/p>\n

The fact that Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife isn\u2019t
\nlooking for a fight on this one doesn\u2019t surprise me. It\u2019s no proof, the state
\nwildlife experts don\u2019t favor wolf reintroduction. (I haven\u2019t found a single
\nprofessional wildlife manger to go on the record against wolf reintroduction.) It\u2019s
\nalso no proof that wolf reintroduction wouldn\u2019t be good for Colorado wildlife
\noverall in creating greater biodiversity.<\/p>\n

One of the big arguments for wolves is they keep ungulates, or
\nhooved animals, on the move, which means they don\u2019t overgraze stream banks.
\nMany native plants, flowers and smaller animal habitats have been lost to ungulate
\novergrazing. In Yellowstone National Park, rangers have been pleased with an increase
\nin biodiversity accompanied by wolf introduction.<\/p>\n

Mike Phillips, director of the Turner Endangered Species
\nFund, has been involved with the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction program since
\nthe 1990s. He says, \u201cIf Coloradans are willing to embrace an honest portrayal
\nof the gray wolf, as defined by decades of reliable research, they will
\nconclude that co-existing with the species is a straightforward affair that
\nrequires only a modicum of accommodation. Such a conclusion advances
\nrestoration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bad weather causes far more cattle and sheep losses than
\nwolves. The Humane
\nSociety<\/a> confirms less than 1% of deaths are verified wolf kills. The U.S.
\nDepartment of Agriculture has released false data based on unconfirmed cases
\nthat were extrapolated to reflect a wider area. Not real data. \u201cThe Humane Society of the
\nUnited States analyzed the USDA\u2019s embellished predation numbers. Their data
\nshow that farmers and ranchers lose nine times more cattle and sheep to health,
\nweather, birthing and theft problems than to all predators combined. In the
\nUSDA reports, \u2018predators\u2019 include mammalian carnivores (e.g., cougars, wolves
\nand bears), avian carnivores (e.g., eagles and hawks) and domestic dogs.
\nDomestic dogs, according to the USDA\u2019s data, kill 100 percent more cattle than
\nwolves and 1,924 percent more sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n

As
\nfor claims of spreading disease, the pro-wolf contingent says wolves help
\ncontrol wasting disease because wolves prey upon weaker animals. As for
\nhunters\u2019 claims that wolves will reduce elk population and thus hurt the
\nColorado economy:<\/p>\n

Delia Malone, wildlife chair for Colorado Sierra Club shared elk population
\nreports from Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. In all three states, elk populations
\nhave grown since the introduction of wolves, and the harvest (elk killed by
\nhunters) also grew from 1995 to 2017 in all three states.<\/p>\n

Due
\nto a variety of factors, the wolf population in Yellowstone declined<\/a> in recent years after
\npeaking in 2003, 2004 and 2007. This data refutes assertions the wolves will
\ntake over and decimate the wildlife of the Rockies.<\/p>\n

Malone says, \u201cIf we put initiative 107 on the ballot and
\nthen elect the gray wolf, we can begin a restorative relationship with nature.
\nRestoring gray wolves to the wild lands of Colorado\u2019s west slope will bring a
\nmuch needed breath of fresh air to our natural ecosystems \u2014 initiating a
\nrestoration of biological diversity and ecosystem health that brings resiliency
\nto our landscapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research consistently shows the reintroduction of wolves will be a good thing for hunters, it will negligibly affect ranchers, and wolves rarely<\/a> attack humans. I vote for the wolves.<\/p>\n

Susan Knopf\u2019s column \u201cFor The Record\u201d publishes Fridays in the Summit Daily News. Knopf has worn many hats in her career, including working as an award-winning journalist and certified ski instructor. She moved to Silverthorne in 2013 after vacationing in Summit County since the 1970s. Contact her at sdnknopf@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Susan Knopf \/ Summit Daily NewsSusan Knopf \/ Summit Daily News The Sierra Club and Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund are running a marathon. They\u2019re trying to get enough signatures to put a wolf initiative on the ballot in 2020. According to Colorado Sierra Club, they collected 85% of the signatures needed for the Dec. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 13:14:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}