Reference no: EM133496214

Assignment:

Establishing a Framework utilizing science and values to develop a management plan for wolves

1. Should Gray wolves be re-wilded? (reintroduced to ranges that, still have ecosystems in which they can be expected to prosper?)
2. The program to restore the Yellowstone and central Idaho ecosystems to their natural states involves intensive human intervention and management. Does this undermine the naturalness of the ecosystems that will result? (Should humans be considered separate from nature?)
3. Whether or not political considerations require that ranchers grazing their livestock on public lands be compensated for animals lost to wolves, does justice require such compensation? Are losses due to predation from reintroduced wolves different from losses due to other natural events such as drought and disease?
4. Designating the reintroduced animals as experimental permits property owners to do things that would otherwise be forbidden such as killing endangered animals that attack their pets or livestock. Does this aspect of the re-introduction plan turn it into a wolf killing plan as this Sierra Club legal defense fund charged? Are their other solutions you feel would be better?
5. Attempts to reintroduce the red wolf (a sub species of the gray wolf) to some of its former Rangers have failed miserably with the death of 38 of 44 of the animal. How should the Fish and Wildlife service officials decide when and where to attempt re introduction programs? Should they be attempted when the prospects that the reintroduced animals will survive is thought to be less than 50%?
6. There were no coyotes in Yellowstone before the wolf was eradicated there as in all parts of the lower 48 states the coyote expanded its range dramatically when wolves were eradicated . In order to truly restore Yellowstone to its pre 1930 ecological composition the coyote would have to be eradicated. Should park managers make coyote eradication a goal?