Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators

[NEWisc]

Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators
Green Fire filmmakers, Karen and Ralf Meyer
Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators

Top predators may hold a key to life itself.
Can people and predators coexist? Can we afford not to?

Birds, butterflies, beaver and antelope, wildflowers and frogs — could their survival possibly be connected to top predators like the wolf and cougar? Narrated by Peter Coyote, Green Fire Productions has created a captivating documentary that goes behind the scenes with leading scientists to explore the role top predators play in restoring and maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity.

I just finished watching this program on my Local PBS station. It's a great program and I recommend it to anyone interested in biodiversity and ecology!

Check your local PBS station listings to see if it is being shown in your area.

There are some screenings by various organizations that might provide another opportunity to view this film. Here's a list of screenings:
Lords of Nature: Screenings

There's also a DVD available from the Lords of Nature website:
Lords of Nature: Purchase DVD
.

[jack]

Originally Posted by NEWisc

Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators
Green Fire filmmakers, Karen and Ralf Meyer
Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators

I just finished watching this program on my Local PBS station. It's a great program and I recommend it to anyone interested in biodiversity and ecology!

Check your local PBS station listings to see if it is being shown in your area.

There are some screenings by various organizations that might provide another opportunity to view this film. Here's a list of screenings:
Lords of Nature: Screenings

There's also a DVD available from the Lords of Nature website:
Lords of Nature: Purchase DVD
.

Unfortunately, since this film was made in 2010, wolves and grizzlies have lost federal protection everywhere except Yellowstone. If a wolf is seen in Utah, and the chances are now slim that there is even one there, it can be killed on sight.

The only state that the wolf has any federal protection in is, ironically, Wyoming. That's because the governor, senator, and state legislature there all voted to extirpate the wolf ASAP, as Federal protection was being planned to be removed. The USFW found this plan to be unacceptable, and made an exception to the lack of protection in Wyoming, the land of Yellowstone. When I was staying out in Cody, Wyoming last July, the most popular bumper sticker, sported by almost every pick up I saw, said "Hope you enjoyed your stay; bring a wolf home with you. We don't want them here."

See this thread: Grey wolf has lost Federal protection

[jack]

The Wyoming plan of shooting the remaining 230 wolves in the state on sight caused the Federal protection law to single them out. Here's the article from February of this year:

Federal Government Appeals Wyoming Wolf Court Order

Nevertheless, Idaho's and Montana's laws are not much better. There exist in those places, though, counteracting environmental interests with clout that are on the wolves side, something entirely missing in Wyoming.

[NEWisc]

I don't know if you had a chance to see the film, but there are segments that show some rather positive examples of some farmers/ranchers making serious attempts to address livestock losses without killing wolves. Those segments were quite uplifting. There are always going to be those that want to kill wolves, just as there are people that intentionally run over snakes, but I find it reasonable to believe that we can overcome our ignorance.

I don't know much about the situation in the Rockies, but I believe that wolves are still protected (federally) here in Wisconsin. The WDNR is working with the Fed's to get them de-listed, but not so that they can eliminate them. Their original goal was a population of about 350, but the population has soared to over 700. The DNR wants the authority to be able to remove wolves that become habitual predators on livestock.

According to the film, Minnesota has quite a large population of wolves. They seem to be a success story with respect to getting the general population to accept the wolves as part of the natural system.
.

[jack]

I would love to see wolves Federally protected in all of those states. But, just the fact that Wisconsin wants to limit the number to 350 from 700 illustrates the real sentiments of those in power.

Just the fact that I was walking on land that wolves had probably traversed made it a more exciting experience for me when I was out West last year. But, whenever and wherever I got back to the local population, the overwhelming sentiment of almost everyone I spoke to (and I made a point of bringing the subject up whenever possible) was that they were for extirpation. To most of the locals, the area was better off without the wolves than with them.

Yes, they were ill-informed on the real reason for the ecological health of their wilder places, but what's new with that? The media is controlled by wealth, the ranchers have the wealth. The rest is finding out the most effective way to make hating wolves the "cool" thing to do. Anyone defending them is considered a weirdo, or worse, a weirdo outsider.

I'm not speculating here, I observed it repeatedly in many different settings, from restaurants, to bars, to rodeo's, to gun shops, to motel and hotel personnel, to retail stores. Almost every last person I spoke to in both Wyoming and Montana were for extirpation of the wolf.

In the news the local governments of those states are also enemies of the wolf (and grizzly), proving again the power of the vested interests who have the wealth. The politicians depend upon the local power bases to become and stay elected. The local power bases are vested in beef production.

Wolves hunt elk as their primary prey. Elk hunting is big business out there and, for many male youngsters, the activity that ultimately proves them to be "a man." These folks are not interested in hearing that the elk herds are healthier with the presence of wolves, they're interested in the fact that elk numbers are down since the wolves' reintroduction.

On the film, which I haven't seen: I've been reading about and watching excerpts on "enlightened" ranchers who want to co-exist with the wolves. There are some of these ranchers, I know. But they are in the minority.

Without federal protection based upon the votes and interests of the nation as a whole, the future of these animals is shaky at best.

Originally Posted by NEWisc

I don't know if you had a chance to see the film, but there are segments that show some rather positive examples of some farmers/ranchers making serious attempts to address livestock losses without killing wolves. Those segments were quite uplifting. There are always going to be those that want to kill wolves, just as there are people that intentionally run over snakes, but I find it reasonable to believe that we can overcome our ignorance.

I don't know much about the situation in the Rockies, but I believe that wolves are still protected (federally) here in Wisconsin. The WDNR is working with the Fed's to get them de-listed, but not so that they can eliminate them. Their original goal was a population of about 350, but the population has soared to over 700. The DNR wants the authority to be able to remove wolves that become habitual predators on livestock.

According to the film, Minnesota has quite a large population of wolves. They seem to be a success story with respect to getting the general population to accept the wolves as part of the natural system.
.