Wolf book signing in Pinedale Nov. 18
'Yellowstone Wolves' by Cat Urbigkit
Original post November 16, 2008 \ Updated November 19, 2008
The Sublette County Library in Pinedale will host a book reading and signing for Cat Urbigkit’s new wolf book on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. The book tells, for the first ime, the history of Wyoming’s native wolf in an intensively researched, fully footnoted chronicle.
Beginning with the archeological evidence of wolves in western Wyoming, through the wolf control era when most, but not all, wolves were eradicated, the book continues through the release of Canadian wolves into Yellowstone National Park and the lasting effects of this controversial action. Urbigkit is uniquely qualified to compile this intensely personal perspective, as she was one of the litigants who sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service to prevent the reintroduction of Canadian wolves into the northern Rockies.
Urbigkit’s book provides four frames of context: historic, scientific, legal, and immensely personal. The book details what was known about the native wolf and how it differed from other wolf populations. It explains the political and legal battles over the proposal to reintroduce non-native wolves to the region. While the debate raged, some of its participants largely ignored the fact wolves still existed in the region and introducing Canadian wolves would be a violation of the Endangered Species Act. Rather than a triumph for conservation, the author viewed the wolf reintroduction program as a tragedy. Rather than a victory for wildlife, it was an action causing the extinction of a truly distinct animal, Wyoming’s native wolf. She fought the original wolf reintroduction proposal not out of hatred for wolves, but out of concern for the possible extinction of Wyoming’s native wolf.
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