AZ Daily Sun (original) Posted: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 10:00 pm
To the editor: I would like to respond to "Jobs, not wolves, needed in Flagstaff." (Letters, May 17). The writer is correct that there have been changes in the environment of northern Arizona over the past century. That is why we should take steps to insure that large areas of remaining habitat be protected from further development and returned to as much a natural state as possible. The Grand Canyon Ecoregion (stretching from the Mogollon Plateau to the canyon lands of southern Utah) contains large expanses of undeveloped land and abundant game that could sustain several wolfpacks in an ecologically balanced predator-prey relationship.
As to the writer's concerns that wolves might converge on Flagstaff, he need not fear. Wolves go to great lengths to avoid human contact, and in fact there is not one documented case of a healthy, wild wolf killing a human in the United States. The Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project (www.gcwolfrecovery.org) is based here in Flagstaff and can provide access to wolf recovery information and scientific studies that have been conducted to date. I encourage those who have interest in this issue to read the current research.
STEVE ROBINSON
Flagstaff
