Provide More Land to Let Wolves Run Free

The article ``The Dance to Coexist With Wolves,'' Dec. 6, misses the point. The Humane Society of the United States and other similar groups have long argued that wolves, as a species, have been persecuted by sportsmen seeking to kill for fun or to eliminate competition for moose, elk, deer, and caribou.

Such rhetoric is unfair to American hunters, who, as a group, are responsible for many of the wildlife success stories of the past 50 years. Most hunters, myself included, would love to see wolves regain ancestral territory.

Unfortunately, such large-scale reintroduction of this wildest of my fellow predators will never occur to any significant extent because, quite simply, Americans are unwilling to provide wolves with the space they require. Like the grizzly bear, wolves require hundreds of miles of free range if they are to thrive.

To provide such range, we as a people would first be obligated to curb our appetite for land and resources.

The second step would be to acknowledge that we, as a species, are too numerous and must therefore voluntarily reduce and reverse population growth. Americans barely put forth the effort to recycle a few cans and save a few acres from becoming strip malls. We would be hard pressed truly to coexist with wolves; therein lies the tragedy. Thomas M. Basch, Grand Rapids, Mich.

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