Who's the Predator?

The balance between the economic demands of our society and the protection and preservation of various creatures, and the environment in general, is a tenuous and shifting battlefront. In Wyoming the state has petitioned to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list (background) and to re-designate it a "predator" which can be hunted and killed without regulation (primarily to protect livestock and elk populations). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just denied the petition. The Bush administration's move to give regulatory power over the gray wolf back to individual states is short sighted, ill advised and archaic. Wolf populations are transitory, not defined by state's borders and should be managed by a comprehensive Federal or regional plan. Endangered predator populations should not be subject to management by states (Alaska leaps to mind) that place a far higher value on a hunter's right to shoot an elk than an ecosystem's potential to get back a small portion of its natural balance.
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