The 4th Annual Speak for Wolves will take place on July 27-29, 2017 in the Historic Union Pacific Dining Lodge in West Yellowstone, Montana. This annual wildlife advocacy conference in the heart of Yellowstone is a family-friendly event featuring guest speakers, live music, food, poetry, book readings, panel discussions and a field trip. Registration is free and open to the public.
On Thursday July 27, there will be an opening ceremony at 6:00 pm, followed by a panel discussion at 7:00 pm on the displacement of native wildlife by invasive livestock. Panelists include Dan Brister of the Buffalo Field Campaign, Ken Cole formerly of Western Watersheds Project, Dr. John Carter of Yellowstone to Uintas Connection and Dr. Zoe Hanley recent graduate of Washington State University Large Carnivore Conservation Lab. At 8:30 pm singer-songwriter and environmental activist Dana Lyons will perform.
On Friday July 28, the morning program will focus on the struggling and underachieving Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program. Michael Robinson with Center for Biological Diversity, along with citizen activists, will present in-depth and expert information on the topic. Following lunch, Kirk Robinson with Western Wildlife Conservancy will present on the potential recovery of lobos in Colorado and Utah. Staff from the Yellowstone to Uintas Connection will present information on the biological connecting corridor(s) from Utah to Yellowstone National Park and Kelly Nokes with Wild Earth Guardians will deliver a presentation on the proposal to needlessly slaughter black bears and cougars in Colorado. A presentation about recovery efforts of the Jaguar in the American Southwest will round out the day.
After a dinner break, musician Dana Lyons will perform a few more songs, before giving way to Dr. Hanley’s presentation about forecasting livestock losses from wolves in the state of Washington. The world-premier of Predator Defense’s new documentary, “The Profanity Peak Pack: Set Up and Sold Out” will then follow. The film will look at the deplorable aerial gunning and slaughter of the wolf family on the Colville National Forest in 2016, and the decisions leading up to the trigger being pulled. A question and answer session will follow the film. Lastly, author and ecologist George Wuerthner will deliver a much-needed program on ending grazing on public lands in the American West.
Speak for Wolves offers five principles for reforming wildlife management in America:
- Restructure state fish and game department operations
- Remove grazing from federal public lands
- Abolish predator control program of USDA Wildlife Services
- Ban trapping and snaring on federal public lands
- Cease wildlife derbies and hunting of native carnivores
If you don’t think we need to reform wildlife management in America, just look at the current proposal by Idaho Department Fish & Game to bait and slaughter wolves throughout the state!
Thank you very much for your time and support. Here’s to Speak for Wolves serving as a venue where wildlife management reform discussions can be had. See the full 2017 schedule here.
Brett Haverstick
Event Organizer
Comments
Sounds like a lot of good topics will be discussed!
Idaho Dept of Fish & Game is taking comments until July 26, 2017 on the baiting of wolves in Idaho. They are even considering using live bait to attract wolves. This idea harkens back to the dark ages and baiting just causes other problems (besides the obvious violation of Fair Chase Ethics)like luring in sensitive non-target species (grizzly bear, wolverine and lynx.
“like luring in sensitive non-target species (grizzly bear, wolverine and lynx.”
This crossed my mind as well. I don’t see how they can get away with it. This is exactly what we were told that delisting would not devolve into. And live baiting is atrocious – you can’t say that there is depredation when they are encouraging it themselves? Although, I suppose it has been going on all along. There’s a notorious sheep rancher in Idaho who baits wolves?
I hope that all of this will be taken into account for grizzly bears, but it doesn’t look like it.