I’m hot off watching this new little doc about the successful reintroduction of the Canadian gray wolf into Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming—and the subsequent bloodbath (both figurative and literal) between hunters, ranchers, wildlife advocates, and the wolves themselves. Made by filmmaker Desiree Fawn, a born-and-bred Idahoan and an old shred pal of mine, The Phantom Wolves does what a good documentary should—it expresses the many facets of the issue so eloquently that instead of taking sides, all I can do now is throw up my hands at the impossible complexity of the situation.
On the one hand, wolves are magnificent beasts, no? They embody the natural world in its intelligence, beauty, and brutality. And yet, we see ourselves in wolves—in their social tendencies, the way they care for their cubs, even in the fact that our loyal, snuggle-muffin domestic dogs are the direct descendents of them. And on a side note, it’s not the wolves’ fault that we’re playing puppet master with them—and they shouldn’t be punished for it. They’re simply doing what they were born to do: survive.
On the other hand, though, wolves have been missing from this eco system for nearly a century. Injecting stone-cold killers into the very top of a food chain that has struck a fine balance without them can have dire effects. Now, I’m a vegetarian and don’t find ranching or hunting to be compelling ways of life, but I understand that there are people who do, and to them, wolves represent supreme evil. They kill off the elk before hunters can get a shot, or drive the elk herds out of the mountains down onto private, non-huntable ranch lands. Sheep, cows, and other livestock are obviously easy pickins for the wolf packs, too, making it even harder for the already struggling ranchers to make ends meet.
What I took away from the film is that when we change something about the planet, the change is irreversible. Wolves were eradicated from the west back in the 30s—at the time, wilderness and “wildness” had no value to a society based on ranching and hunting. Lots of us now recognize how wildlife enriches the planet and our lives, but it’s foolish to think that we can control the ways in which the wolf—or any other aspect of nature—finds its way in this changing world.
To find out more about The Phantom Wolves of Sun Valley and where you can watch it, check Fawnfilms.com.
