OPINION/COMMENTARY

Wolves in Yellowstone

“Damn liberal new-ager Bruce Babbitt,” the old man grumbled. “I heard he howled like a wolf at the ceremony.” Cody, the longtime Wyoming resident, referring to Bill Clinton’s Secretary of the Interior became incensed over the 1995 reintroduction of the Gray Wolf to Yellowstone National Park. The year was 1997, and I was living in Yellowstone. It would be an understatement to say that the reintroduction was controversial. While park employees like myself and traditional conservationists nationwide sang its praises, ranchers and locals, like Cody were downright pissed off. And in December of that year, Federal District Judge William Downes ruled that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone was unlawful, and thus ordered them removed....