Reader speaks out in defense of wolves

Dennis Clay is at it again. One week he and his friends are shooing elk herds off of ranchers' fields because they are so plentiful they are becoming almost a pest. The next week, wolves are decimating elk herds to the point of towns losing the economic boost of hunters. This is all just to stir up the angry mob to light the torches. Outdoor writers like Clay have to fall into line or be shunned.

Here is another side to the Diamond Point Ranch and its supposed wolf problem. A millionaire rancher with 3,000 acres also leases state land, much of it forested, to graze his cattle. He has a paranoid agenda too. He has always said the "radical environmentalists" were going to stop him from leasing land to save wolves. Some say he may have baited the wolves with a calf. Now, of course, the whole pack is to be exterminated by Fish and Game from helicopters. He wins; the wolf loses. But really this was the only documented pack in Washington state. This one pack, supposedly decimating elk and caribou herds, according to Mr. Clay.

In Minnesota, where I am from, wolves and hunters (and campers) coexist. There have been no dairy cows or humans attacked. Whitetail deer and moose are plentiful. Kids wear pictures of wolves on their T-shirts. The basketball team is named the Timberwolves. People canoe and camp in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, home to wolves. I guess Minnesotans aren't as quick to believe all the propaganda. We even elected a free-thinking governor, Jesse Ventura, who now looks like an old, gray wolf.

Jon Ruth

Moses Lake