Facts fail to support letter writer's claims

Jim Hollingsworth’s wolf eradication letter (Sept. 7) was misleading, factless, senseless, ignorant.

Hollingsworth: People/wolves don’t mix. Wolves will kill people.

Fact: In the last 100 years, one person killed by wolves due to habituation, Paul Paquet, wolf biologist, University of Calgary; less than 20 people attacked by wolves, Doug Smith Ph.D., head of the Yellowstone Wolf Recovery Project; person in wolf country, greater chance being hit by lightning, dying of bee sting than injured by wolf, IDFG news release, Jim Lukens, 4/06.

Hollingsworth: Wolves add nothing to ecosystem.

John Varley Ph.D., director of the Yellowstone Center for Resources: Ecologically, wolf reintroduction is the most exciting thing in park’s history. Wolves may prove as fundamental to Yellowstone life as water to Everglades.

Biologists: Wolves play an important role in nature, presence enhances biodiversity, healthy ecosystems. (Sources: Smith, Peterson, Houston, Bioscience 55(4); Ripple, Beschta, Forest Ecology & Management 200; Curlee, Minta, Kareiva, Carnivores in Ecosystems.)

Hollingsworth: Wolves kill all deer, elk, then starve.

Fact: Wolves, deer, elk co-existed for thousands of years before human intervention. John Varley: Wolf kills generally well consumed. Sometimes wolves surplus kill more than consume. If undisturbed or driven off by humans, wolves return to a kill two or three times, feeding, up to three weeks. Scott Creel, biologist, Montana State University: Given time predator/prey populations stabilize. Change most dramatic in beginning then numbers settle. No predator has ever eliminated its food.

PHIL POUTRÉ

Cocolalla