Originally Posted by homers brother

What you fail to account for here is that there was NO wildlife management (and other than the reintroducing wolves, there STILL isn't) in Yellowstone Park. That cannot be said outside the park in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.

While you and National Geographic may revel in the idea that the wolves have brought the elk population in Yellowstone down, what you conveniently omit is that there was NO credible predator in Yellowstone until wolves were reintroduced. Man was not allowed to hunt there, but I'm sure you're aware of that, living in Belgium and all?

Man, on the other hand, DOES hunt the surrounding area extensively, and the sustainable elk populations there reflect that. Because populations outside the park are already managed, the "habitat destruction" depicted in that cute little artist's rendition in National Geographic .... can't exist outside the park.

It's probably interesting to note that Rocky Mountain National Park also boasts an overpopulation of elk. And, like Yellowstone, hunting by humans is forbidden. Problematic though, reintroducing wolves (as some now advocate, trumpeting Yellowstone as the model) almost ensures problems and negative interactions between humans and wolves in nearby Estes Park and the Denver Metroplex.

"Hunters" are so villified by the artsy people around Estes Park that one cannot call the current efforts underway to reduce the elk problem what they are ("hunting"). Essentially, many of them are more "hunter-hater" than they are "wolf-lover". They don't want humans killing elk. That's the bottom line.

You said it best. This issue is far from your doorstep. Don't try assuaging the guilt you Europeans have for killing off all the wolves by championing them in someone else's backyard. If you want them so badly, I'm sure we could send you more than you'd know what to do with.