Vote against bill H.R.6784 and the accompanying Manage Our Wolves Act, which states that gray wolves should be taken off the list of endangered and threatened species. There are many reasons to not support and to vote against this bill and accompanying act, one being that though many cattle ranchers are claiming that they are losing hundreds of cattle to wolves, the data shows otherwise, and wolves are not a large threat to the cattle. Another reason is that wolves benefit the natural development of our ecosystem, supporting even rivers. I also encourage you to read the H.R. 6784 dissenting views.

I understand that many cattle ranchers are concerned about their livestock and the wolves that are attacking their cattle. While it is true that wolves kill cattle, the data supports that the number of cattle killed each year by wolves is a very small percentage. According to Doug Smith, the director of the Yellowstone National Park wolf restoration project, with over twenty years of experience, wolves do not kill for sport, they only kill when absolutely necessary. They will only go after cattle when food is scarce, such as in the wintertime and when there is a lot of snow, and they need enough food to sustain them through those times. Cattle wouldn’t be their first choice, but in desperate times, an animal is going to eat to survive. Wolves are incredibly scared of humans and they will run away whenever they smell a human nearby. If the wolves have just killed a cow and are eating off of it and they sense a human’s presence, they will run off and not return to finish their meal, therefore requiring them to kill another cow because they were not able to finish off the meat. Wolves will eat the entire animal to get their fill and will leave none wasted, unless disturbed by a human. This is why they are going after more cattle, they are unable to go back to the cattle to finish it off due to human interference, which leaves them yearning for hunger.

Though wolves kill many species, they also help life and end up benefiting the ecosystem. For example, in Yellowstone National Park, before wolves were reintroduced, the deer population was high, and growing quickly even though humans tried to keep them in check. The deer roamed the park and ate all of the vegetation until there was almost none left. When the wolves came, they killed some of the deer, rebalancing the population. The deer started staying away from areas that they were easily cornered by wolves, like valleys, and the vegetation there flourished. Trees in the valleys sprang up and became forests, drawing birds to build nests and raise their chicks, and beavers came to eat the trees. The dams that the beavers built provided shelter for not only them, but otters, muskrats, ducks, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. As the wolves killed coyotes, the number of mice and rabbits increased, attracting hawks, foxes, weasels, and badgers, and eagles and ravens came to eat the leftover carrion that the wolves had left. Bears fed on it as well, and their population increased, also partly because of more berries on the newly-grown trees and bushes, and the bears helped the impact of the wolves by killing some of the deer calves. These changes began to affect the rivers. Less deer wandering meant less erosion, and the rivers narrowed and created more habitats for wildlife. The regenerating trees helped stabilize the banks of the rivers, and the rivers became more undeviating, changing not only the park’s ecosystem, but its geography. If the wolves’ numbers decrease, which they will if the protection on wolves is lifted, everything the wolves have done, not only in Yellowstone, but throughout where they live in the entire United States, will be reversed and the healthy environment and ecosystem that has been created to date by the reintroduction of the wolves, will become threatened again.

In closing, I would like to thank you very much for your consideration in not supporting and voting against H.R. 6784 and the accompanying Manage Our Wolves Act. Above, I have described two reasons why you should do this. I would like to also add that, regardless of how you vote, any legislation which modifies the Endangered Species Act of 1973 should not be exempt from judicial review. Please join me in protecting the wolves’ right to life and right to representation in court.