This is a disaster for wildlife, all wildlife. President Trump and the Republicans want to dial back the Endangered Species Act and take federal lands out of public hands. The Center for Biological Diversity estimates that, since 2011, in these six states, more than 3,762 wolves have been killed by private citizens during state-sanctioned hunting and trapping seasons. In 2011, federal protections for wolves were lifted in six states-Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. However, USDA/WS is not the only threat to wolves. Of the 3.2 million native wildlife killed by USDA/WS in 2015, according to the data from their own report, 415 of those animals were gray wolves. Hear photographer Ronan Donovan describe the challenge of photographing one of Yellowstone National Park's most elusive and iconic species. It’s only now that they’re coming out of the shadows and being held accountable. Because they operate in secret, and it’s hard to find out statistics, they’ve done what they want to do. Wildlife Services is a SWAT team against wildlife. They’re the ones who are called in to cull a wolf pack accused of depredation, and they have no limits. This is Wildlife Services, which the New York Times accused of operating in the shadows of government. Can you explain these shocking figures to our readers-and where wolves fit into those stats? You claim that USDA killed at least 3.2 million wild animals in 2015, including hundreds of bears, wolves, mountain lions, and bobcats. One of the ways to change that is to have a conversation. And they don’t speak to one another, just like in the abortion issue, where you have people who have a strong, religious pro-life stance and others who are pro-choice. I belong to the anti-wolf culture, or the pro-wolf culture. It goes to the sense of, I am in this culture. There is a passion that goes deeper than politics. Now, all of a sudden, you have voices coming from the public, who are often urban and have an environmental passion. One side, the hunters and ranchers, has been dominant since we began as a country. On either side, you have people who have a sense of righteousness about their cause. You’re dealing with a fault line between cultures and, as we know from earthquake studies, fault lines are very volatile and active. You write, “wolf preservation has often been called ‘the abortion issue of wildlife’.’’ Why are the sides so polarized? Because I come from within the culture that once eradicated them, I can speak to hunters and ranchers-and search for common ground. I was raised with some of these hunters, who told me, “There is the big good wolf.” I think this gave me a certain authenticity when it comes to talking about wildlife and endangered species. But many hunters do not believe in killing wolves they believe in sustainable hunting and fair chase ethics. Wonderful question! I was raised in the enemy camp, so to speak, in the Plumas National Forest, in the high Sierra, northern California, by hunters and wildlife managers. How did you make the transition-and how does your early experience inform your work? Yet you were born on the other side of the tracks, so to speak, into a family of hunters and wildlife managers. You are today a passionate advocate for wolves.
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