I have always found wolves to have a mysterious nature about them. Perhaps that’s what makes me want to learn more about them, plus photograph them. Of course I have always loved nature, never being afraid of it but embracing it. That being said, the nature of the human race to kill everything they see has disturbed me. From reading the history of the west and how many wolves were slaughtered for their fur coats and just killing indiscriminately has saddened me. When I began photographing the nature around me, I’m always pleased to be in the presence of the animals around me. Some with curiosities, other’s quite skittish.
You could imagine the excitement I had when I heard back around in 1995 – 96 that officials would reintroduce wolves to central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park. The plan was to reintroduce 66 wolves to the area. Well, the plan worked well. In fact it’s estimated that the population of wolves has reached 2,000 individuals. When they were released in Idaho and Washington they quickly wandered into Oregon. There is strong evidence of the first wolf pack in Oregon, the first in many years since the eradication from the West. With the wolves recovering in bigger numbers each year there seemed to be hope for them. Obviously, I was to quick to judge. The Bush administration felt differently. They delisted the Greater Yellowstone area wolves in March of 2008 since being listed on the endangered list in 1974. I cannot understand how anyone can honestly say that a species be taken off the endangered species list when there is only a population of around 2,000 wolves in those areas, is beyond me. I was truly upset with this decision by the Bush administration. Since their removal from the endangered species list there has been over 100 wolves killed in the short time since they had been removed from the list.