Some people have asked what led me to write this book.  Like all creation, it was the result of a struggle.  In this case, it was a struggle with myself.

About two years ago, in another crisis economic compromise, Congress removed wolves from the protection of the Endangered Species Act.  Under this Act, wolves re-introduced into the Rocky Mountain region of the United States had flourished, their numbers increasing to about 1700.  Without the Act’s shelter, wolf hunting is now permitted in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.  The stated goal is to reduce wolf population to ~100 individuals per state.  That’s a lot of hunting.

Animating the hunt is the prevailing idea, nurtured by age-old tales, that wolves are vicious creatures, dangerous to people; that they kill for pleasure; and therefore, that they deserve to be (re-)exterminated, or something close to it, although now it is called “management”.

I struggled to find an appropriate response, something I could do besides writing letters and sending e-mails to politicians.  And then I realized that what I could do best was to share my own experiences with wolves in the wild.  There I find them to be curious about humans, beautiful beyond believing, fascinating in a way that cannot easily be explained, and utterly without threat.  Wild Wolf Encounters is my way of undoing, one story and poem at a time, a painful and dangerous myth.

This book is appropriate for adults and children.  I hope you will enjoy it.