Dear editor,
I disagree with your Feb. 10 editorial with the title Wolves aren’t the problem.
I have some experience in the area of the planned wolf kill, and understand that the few remaining mountain caribou in the south of B.C. will become extinct very soon if we don’t move to protect them, and that the only predation the mountain caribou face now, and in the recent past, has been wolves. Add to the picture the fact that wolves have had significant population increases in the area.
Secondly, comparison in the editorial to the reintroduction of wolves (where they had been long absent) to Yellowstone Park is comparing apples to slugs, as the wildlife situation in the two areas involved and risk of loss of a species (vs. reintroduction of a species) make the situations very different.
Thirdly, some discussion with the Ministry of Environment and its experts by your editorial staff would help you to better understand the situation; I am sure the MoE does not make such decisions as a cull lightly.
But ... if I was cynical, I’d say it’s easier (and sells paper better?) to write an editorial without any investigation of the facts of the situation and agitate readers with unresearched opinions, rather than making a few simple phone calls. Fortunately I’m an optimist, so thanks for listening to my opinion.
Guy Wassick
Comox