I was snowshoeing on Mt. Rainier on a snowy spring day two years ago when I crossed paths with a brown fox. Though I’ve been hiking and climbing in high and wild places in the Pacific Northwest for 30 years, I’d never before seen a wild fox, perhaps because I hadn't really looked for one. My eyes tend to take-in the big picture--I see the mountains, the sky, the overall landscape, yet only when the brown fox walked right in front of me did I see him.Another time, two friends and I were camped near Park Creek Pass in the North Cascades. I’d set the alarm on my watch to wake me for sunrise, but my down sleeping bag was feeling toasty and sinfully comfy when the alarm went off. Fighting lethargy, I dragged my sleepy self from the tent, gathered my camera and lenses and tripod and hiked to a nearby rock outcropping, hoping warm, early light might illuminate the nearby peaks (photographer Bill Allard calls this early-morning pilgrimage “showing up for work on time.”) The light was pleasant but not extraordinary. An hour later when I walked back into camp, my friend James was out making coffee and told me he’d seen a wolf east of our tent (I had been focused on the peaks to the west.) Wolves are very rare, fairly ghostlike creatures in the Cascades, and I will never forget that day I missed seeing one.
Now I learn that my government is considering a hunting program that would exterminate half the wolf population in Wyoming and Idaho. I read that the government has purchased planes and helicopters that would make it possible for hunters to kill entire packs of wolves in minutes. I invite you to visit the link below, and to consider responding with a comment to those planning this obscene slaughter.
http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/actionfund_wolfaerial
