[petey]

The wolves will kill themselves after they've eaten everything there is to eat. They'll just die of starvation! From what I'm reading in my BUGLE, the last 3 issues have been nothing but this big wolf controversy, Yellowstone is lost.

For those of you that didn't get to see it prior to 4 years ago, I pity you. You'll get to see all the natural wonders, but the big game herds are decimated in that area (mainly elk). The Feds want you to believe it's hard winters? Come-on, even and Easterner can put 2 and 2 together. Take a herd that's cut almost to a 4th of what it was in 5 years and the only thing that changed was the wolf??? DUH!!

Those of you arguing the pros of the Canadian Grey wolf back here in the East are only going off of what you read, more than likely what some Fed wrote as fallacy. You aren't living there and actually seeing what's happening. It's destroyed the actual living of many (outfitters in the Yellowstone area) who have closed doors due to no animals and lack of business and will destroy the small towns of the west during hunting season. Not only outfitters but ranchers also. For those of you that don't live there, or haven't lived there, or have never been there..how can you argue your point? These towns and areas thrive and survive off of the income that comes in during hunting season. You can only see that by being there during these times of the year. Those of you that say, well they don't have to be Outfitters and charge all of that money to hunt....you forget (or you never knew) hunting IS their way of life. Us non-residents are their paycheck and it's seasonal. If you've never been there..you just don't know...you just don't know. Take a look at the post Rocky made in the Varmint section with a picture of the local post office. Maybe that'll bring a little light into the subject. The only thing to live off of is the land and what is there. It's not like here in the east where you drive 10 mins to the local Walmart and buy any/everything you need.

Me, yeah I've lived there and I've been hunting there for over 15 years so I've seen the changes that have occured. Man is greedy and it shows in the increase of cost of license over the years. It's becoming a rich man's sport to hunt elk and other big game in the West. I've have 2 encounters with wolves in Yellowstone, both pleasant. The supporters of the RMEF including myself are real worried about what these wolves are doing. Just like this article states, I believe big game hunting may be lost in my lifetime. Hard to imagine only 4-5 yrs can do that..but when you INTRODUCE (notice I didn't say reintroduce since you can't reintroduce something that wasn't there in the first place) an ultimate predator like the Canadian grey with no holds bar on it she'll act like an Amish family fishing a farm pond...Stay until it's fished clean, then move onto the next pond. You're already seeing where the wolf is moving on to the next "pond". I sure wish you locals well and hope it all turns out but I'm afraid the battle is already lost on this one.

It will be impossible to get rid of them now, or even "manage" them....choose your PC term, but your area is screwed and unfortunately one of the, if not THE largest herd of that infamous big game animal that beckons me to drive West each and every year. I hang my head in shame for not voicing my opinion before this all happened.