Sound Advice to Ely Mayor Ross Peterson: Don’t Bite the Paw That Feeds You
In his response to the pro-wolf rally sponsored by Howling For Wolves on November 9, Mayor Ross Peterson rejected fair and balanced public debate about recreational wolf hunting and trapping. This diminished the prospect of reconciling Ely’s citizens with the wolves that propel its economy.
Visitors to Ely spend at least $3 million each year to visit the International Wolf Center, to learn about the life-history of the canid species and the myriad ways wolves enliven its heritage. Others spend millions more at Ely’s flagship resorts, restaurants and retailers. In the process, they meet up with the wilderness and learn more about the scientific and logistical ways we can achieve coexistence with a species that exhibits only slight genetic separation from domestic dogs.
In its recent petition, Howling For Wolves (HFW) captured over 55,000 signatures to encourage our DNR and legislature to end recreational hunting and trapping of wolves.
In fact, our DNR's 2012 online survey reported that 79% of respondents opposed the hunting and trapping of Minnesota’s wolves. So, if even a small percent chose to boycott Ely because Mayor Peterson rejects peaceful wildlife advocacy, what effect might this have on Ely’s hard-won family businesses?
On November 9, 2013 Mayor Peterson portrayed the HFW rally as a "negative" assembly. In The Echo, he decried our “ignorance" and expressed the wish that organizations such as ours gather “in some other town." Continually, Howling For Wolves has promoted Ely as a wilderness destination supporting its community and wolf-friendly commerce. We never expected to be shunned by the mayor.
It is unfortunate that a politician appointed by the people to protect Ely’s welfare dares bite the paw that feeds it. The paw of the wolf resembles that of the domestic dog; the wolf holds fast to its position in our ecosystem despite our abuse. The wolf helps preserve the vitality of regional plants and animals for those who follow us. The wolf helps us experience true wild and recognize our humanity.
The mayor argues that, "hunting…helps keep the wolf wild," ignoring the fact that last year's hunt reduced Minnesota’s gray wolf census to its lowest level since 1988. It also overrides the fact that our DNR failed to follow protocols outlined in its own Wolf Management Plan. And ultimately we can already kill wolves consider a "perceived" threat to people livestock and pets.
HFW is concerned about Mayor Peterson's unfiltered public communications in which he describes peaceful wolf advocates with disparaging remarks. In one, he discourages a couple who planned to launch a wolf-friendly business in Ely, stating: “…don't try to start a business... We have a couple families a year that go back to where they came from broke because they tried to start a business …here.”
Still, Mayor Peterson attempts to advance Ely as an anti-wolf wilderness area. It is an oxymoron which levels a total knock out to all the tough-minded families who developed wolf-friendly businesses. Howling for Wolves, therefore, joins with the citizens of Ely, who have developed a pro-wolf culture and generated commerce which operates within natural limits.
Our supporters are rural and urban; Democrats, Republicans and Independents; hunters and non-hunters, farmers and non-farmers, men and women in occupations from students to professionals, who recognize the importance of growing local economies in tandem with fair wolf-management statutes. Together, we can put an end to “wolf wars” and reduce the tensions to which they subject us.
Those who desire to drive wolf numbers down to levels that put the wolf at risk of a catastrophic decline are biting the paw that helped sustain Ely for over 150 years. That precedent is one Mayor Peterson can neither deny nor minimize. And while he admonishes Howling for Wolves, we place wolf-tolerant communities such as Ely front-and-center as we move forward.
In this light, Howling for Wolves extends its hand to Mayor Peterson and to Ely's people with hope of reconciliation and the continued coexistence of Ely’s people with the wolves “at their door,” who fortify their regional ecosystem and by extension their wilderness economy.
We won’t bite the paw that feeds Ely, and we ask that reconciliation occur between Howling for Wolves and the Peterson Administration -- on terms which allow both local entrepreneurs and gray wolves to survive.