From what I just looked up, the 2 acts I listed combine for just under $3 billion a year, and that's just 2 congressional funding requirements.
I tend to try and lean into the opinions of professionals. I would want to make decisions based off of what the biologists like Diane Boyd say. After their opinion, then the public debate can start.
I only have a few personal stories regarding wolves. They are a fascinating animal to me, maybe my favorite in nature. I teach my students as much as I have and can learn about them. But I am not naive to what they are. Maybe contributes to my fascination.
There is a great scene in Hostile Planet episode on the Grasslands. It is of the largest wolves on earth in Alberta hunting a woods bison. Its just awesome to watch, but it ends how you expect it too and the footage does not hide it. It is a lesson to my students. This is how it really is.
I have heard many stories from my grandpa and his friends like how they landed on a fresh kill site of a young cow that one single wolf took down, one of my uncle have been trapping for 30 some years, he got circled around by a pack once, he climb the beaver hut and waited out, we don’t comprehend or appreciate their intelligent until you try to trap one.
I have a big one rooming around my property, it’s the second year I see tracks I have seen him a few times last year a big one probably 100lbs he didn’t seem to care about me when I saw him he looked at me and carried on, he hasn’t came close to my horses yet but still a hairy feeling wen I go in the bush with my 3 dogs I don’t think he would go after them while I am around but more my dogs going after him… he has snatch a few dogs in my area…
I think I agreed with everything Dian said in the podcast other then her dismissal of wolf attacks, like from WW1 or WW2 against soldiers, that’s well documented from written account and testimonies and it happen in both wars, I personally watched interviews from veterans talking about. The Natives have stories of attack against them from their elders it happens, there are recent documentation in Canada and Alaska as well, super rare yes but many completely dismiss it but it happens.
from wiki
“The country with the most extensive historical records is
France, where nearly 10,000 fatal attacks were documented from 1200 to 1920.
[1][2][3] A study by the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research showed that there were eight fatal attacks in Europe and Russia, three in
North America, and more than 200 in south Asia in the half-century up to 2002.
[4] The updated edition of the study revealed 498 attacks on humans worldwide for the years 2002 to 2020, with 25 deaths, including 14 attributed to
rabies.
[5]“
“Wolf biologist
L. David Mech hypothesized in 1998 that wolves generally avoid humans because of fear instilled by hunting.“
en.m.wikipedia.org
