Speak For Wolves: Yellowstone 2014

Roosevelt Arch – North Entrance Yellowstone National Park (Gardiner, Mt)

Speak for Wolves: Yellowstone 2014 is essentially about hope. It’s an opportunity for the American people to unite and demand wildlife management reform and restore our national heritage. On June 28-29, 2014, thousands of Americans will meet in Arch Park in Gardiner, Montana to hear why we need to reform wildlife management, at both the state and federal level, and how we can do it.

There are five main principles behind reforming wildlife management:

1. No killing of predators–period. The best available science suggest that predators, including wolves, are a self-regulating species. In other words, predators don’t overpopulate; instead their populations naturally fluctuate, as do prey or ungulate populations. “Managing” predators is code word for killing them, and it is not necessary, and no longer to be tolerated. Non-lethal measures can be effective in rare instances where there are actual human/predator conflicts.

2. Removal of all livestock from federal public lands. It is well documented the damage that cows/cattle/livestock cause across our wildlands. They are non-native and invasive and are responsible for soil compaction, a decrease in water retention and aquifer recharge, erosion, destruction of wetlands and riparian areas, flooding, and a net-loss of biodiversity. They enable invasive plant species to proliferate, which effects the West’s historic fire regime.

3. Banning trapping/snaring on all federal public lands. We must evolve as a society and move away from this barbaric, unethical, cruel and tortuous method(s) of killing native wildlife. Leg-hold traps, conibear traps and other devices are indiscriminate killers. In other words, anything and everything can walk into them, including humans and dogs. Trappers are currently required to check their traps once every 72-hours.

4. Abolishing Wildlife Services. Hidden within the US Department of Agriculture, is a rogue agency that is essentially the wildlife killing-arm of the federal government. For over 100-years this federal tax-payer supported agency has largely worked on behalf of the livestock industry and is responsible for the death of tens-of millions of native wildlife. Methods of killing include trapping, poisoning, and aerial gunning of native wildlife.

5. Restructuring the way state Fish & Game agencies operate. Politics: western governors currently appoint agency commissioners, which essentially, tell the state departments what to do. This is cronyism at its worst. Economics: state agencies are mostly funded by the sale of hunting/fishing tags or permits. They are binded into serving the interest of “sportsmen” because it’s the hand that feeds them. Science and democracy are sorely lacking in these departments.

Speak for Wolves: Yellowstone 2014 is about taking an important step towards stopping the wolf slaughter that is currently taking place across the United States. We must look the real problem in the eye, however, and take bold measures. The status quo is broken, in both, how wildlife is being “managed” at the state and federal level, and how the public is dealing with it: public meetings, appeals, litigation, etc. We can continue to attempt to stop the bleeding or instead, address the real causes of the problem, which are the 5 principles.

Come to Arch Park in Gardiner, Montana June 28-29, 2014. The event is family friendly and will feature prominent speakers, live music, video production crews, education and outreach booths, food and drink vendors and the screening of wildlife documentaries. This is going to be the event of the year in the northern Rockies. Together we can make history and restore our wild national heritage!

Brett Haverstick
Organizer
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Posted in: Wolf Warriors, Gray Wolf, Activism, Biodiversity
Photo: Courtesy Brett Haverstick
Tags: Speak for Wolves: Yellowstone 2014, stand up for wolves, effect change, paradigm shift, grass roots movement, Arch Park, Gardiner Mt., North entrance Yellowstone National Park