Dear HCN,
Fred Wagner’s essay on
elk in Yellowstone begs for a response. While I won’t suggest that
the Park Service doesn’t occasionally attempt to control what is
said or done with regard to park policy, I don’t think they are
“destroying” Yellowstone as Wagner or his graduate student, Charles
Kay, allege. Wagner’s ideas are like the same outcries that arose
over the fires of 1988. They come from people with a limited
perspective.
Just as one can’t predict or control
ultimately how many acres of a forest burns, we can’t predict nor
should we decide how many elk is correct. Rather it is the
processes that we should maintain. With this in mind, the
Yellowstone’s wildlife policies are better than those on most lands
in the country. But people with a “management” or “control”
background like Wagner and Alston Chase simply can’t envision
leaving things alone and always assume they know what’s best for
the landscape. If that isn’t playing god in Yellowstone, I don’t
know what is.
George
Wuerthner
Eugene,
Oregon
George Wuerthner has
written two books on Yellowstone’s natural history and
ecology.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Elk and playing god.
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