On my way

Hey Everyone,

Wolf Track from August Workshop

So this is my blog explaining my experience during my project to complete my master's degree in Environmental Conservation at the University of Wisconsin Madison. So a bit of background, when I was little I got a wolf stuffed animal and I feel in love with the animal. I did every childhood "report" during school about wolves and collected tons of stuffed animals (all of which I still have). I don't have a specific reason why I was drawn to them and still am. They are just mystifying... which leads to now.

Adrian Wydeven presenting
at the meeting on the history
of  TWA.

In August of 2016, I had the opportunity to go to a workshop on wolf ecology hosted by the Timber Wolf Alliance. Here I got to learn the "grown up" version of everything I had studied when I was little. This sparked the passion for the species again, so I connected with the coordinator of the organization, Adrian Wydeven. Who, if you don't know, is a pretty important person in the world of wolves. Not only serving in the WDNR for most of his career, he was involved with the Isle Royale carnivore prey study between Moose and Wolves, is cited in most wolf literature, organized the state's management plan on wolves, and so on and on. Now he works as the coordinator of the Timber Wolf Alliance, which I will refer to as TWA, along with other projects supporting wolves within the United States.

Doug Smith

In meeting this man, I had the opportunity to plan a project to develop TWA's educational materials. TWA's mission encompasses educating the public about scientifically objective information, which is now the focus for my project development. Most of the materials will be used by the Speaker's Bureau and K-12 educators. I wanted to do this project because of my education background and hope to learn about wildlife management.

This last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Midwest Wolf Stewards Meeting in Houghton, MI. From all over the Midwest and Ontario, individuals came together to learn the latest in wolf research and updates from around the wolf territories. I also had the honor of listening to Doug Smith, a Senior Wildlife Biologist for Yellowstone National Park talk about the modern age of the wolf. I wanted to share some of the insights I gained from his talk, here in my first blog.

"Supposing is good, but finding out is better." - Mark Twain

Doug shared this quote to help support his idea that we can tell stories after stories because they are effective in pulling in the emotions of people to behave or believe in certain things, but we have to know the facts and find out the facts. For me, science is truly the way that we need to go to support all that we do and to help support harmony on our planet between wildlife and people.

"What would the woods be like without him in it?"

Referencing a picture of a wolf standing under the moonlight captured by a trap camera, Doug asked the audience this question. People sometimes say the wolf is a symbol for "wildness." Can we image these wild areas without these species? If we can't, than what can we do to move forward in living with wolves on this planet? I definitely don't have an answer for you. Doug did share that its not always strictly about the facts but also about supporting the science with narratives. People want to know these animals' stories. 

Think about Doug's question looking at this picture. What changes if the wolf was not
standing there? This is not the photo he used, but one I liked from a google search.
Photo credit: https://howlingforjustice.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/black-wolf-in-snow-beautiful-eyes-kewl.jpg