Wolves, maps and women

Last weekend, in between visits to the technicolored aspen forests (what a gorgeous place this is right now!), I caught two films at the 15^th annual CB Film Fest, and apart from appreciating that we have this annual infusion of culture here, I was really moved by both films. Both happened to be centered on powerful change maker females: Emily Harrington’s dogged physical ambitions and feats in  Girl Climber as the first female to free-climb El Capitan in a day, were impressive. 

Then I saw the equally riveting Lost Wolves of Yellowstone with recovered footage from the harrowing 1995 effort to reintroduce an apex predator and restore ecological balance to our nation’s very first national park. The film was apropos of the gray wolf reintroduction in Colorado these days and perhaps even in Gunnison County this coming winter. The alpha female’s “wolf #5” legacy endures 30 years later among the wolf packs of Yellowstone and the ecosystem her descendants have helped restore. 

The film also celebrated what Mollie Beattie accomplished as the first female director of the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, advocating for both wolf reintroduction and the Endangered Species Act as a whole. Her work was extremely contentious and controversial, and experts poured a lot of knowledge into the wolf reintroduction process but allowed the process to evolve as they learned more. That is happening in Colorado’s wolf reintroduction as well, and it is inherently complex. 

After the screening, the nonprofit Mission: Wolf brought out Lyra and Atlas, two wolf-husky mixes resulting from illegal breeding practices that are apparently all too common. Mission: Wolf operates a remote wolf sanctuary near Westcliffe, promoting a better understanding of wolves and discouraging attempts to keep them as pets. The Mission: Wolf spokesperson commented as they packed up to go home that he hopes to hear a wolf pack howl in the wilds of Gunnison County someday. I would bet that day is not too far off. 

Some of us may be uncomfortable with that for various reasons but as the film depicted, it is hard to know when to stop meddling with nature once we’ve started. All we can do is implement our best science, be open to learning more and recognize that our understanding of science and nature will evolve our practices over time. Hopefully for the better—if not in a linear way, in an eventual way. The wolves are coming back, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is trying to smooth their integration to a landscape that has other needs too. 

I recently came across a map published by Bloomberg depicting the land uses across the U.S. to scale. The maps used satellite images, surveys and information from government data, and turns out most of our land is used for croplands, rangeland and grazing. Bloomberg reported that all of the country’s cities and towns would fit neatly in the Northeast. It also stated, “What can be harder to decipher is how Americans use their land to create wealth.” The report showed a jigsaw puzzle of the cities, farms, forests and pastures that we use to feed ourselves, power our economy and extract value “for business and pleasure.”

Here in the valley, we do extract a great deal of value for business and pleasure. We may as well recognize that. It seems central to the current debates about Snodgrass, it’s how we power our summer and winter economy and how we market our university and jobs and live our lifestyles. 

CPW has just released a Wildlife Planning Tool that creates a similar map for this valley (see page 1). It’s meant to help us all consider our competing uses and how to integrate them without displacing others. I was surprised at how big our human impacts are, even for things like a single trail. I think CPW’s maps are fascinating and useful. Gunnison County apparently does too; it plans to integrate the tool for its own land use planning in the future. 

Also related, the county and the city of Gunnison have released a draft Gunnison Area Plan to zone for various uses beyond the city limits. That public process has drawn some big crowds lately, mostly from concerned Gunnison residents. After this plan is finalized, the county will look at corridor planning for the north end of the valley. The sooner the better, although it will also likely be contentious with big development applications already asking to put up more buildings in large open spaces. 

Planning work is not a crowd pleaser like the film festival, but we need to plan ahead to continue improving how we co-exist with ranchers, trail users, wildlife and commercial and urban development. 

Let’s be thankful that our local governments and agencies like CPW are planning. They are trying to get it right, and with so many disparate voices, they have to weigh all of them. I don’t envy that task.

If our new planning processes can map out respectful boundaries around what is already here, what those elements need to thrive, they will be successful for more generations. I am glad there are intelligent and courageous people stepping up to do that work around the world and bringing it here to our valley too—through films, through nonprofits, through passion and yes, even government. Here’s to evolving our maps, working with the wolves and integrating rather than displacing each other.

—Katherine Nettles