Re-Wolfing Urban Parks
May 1st, 2008
By MICHAEL SILVERSTEIN
Not long ago, several dozen gray wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park. It was part of an Interior Department effort to keep down excess deer and elk populations, and to restore a natural predator to a habitat where it once roamed freely. In a larger sense, it was also a recognition that the natural” approach to public land management, the way it was done before elaborate human planning became the rule, is still often the best way to get things done.
The question that immediately leaps to mind upon contemplating this natural methodology is whether a similar effort might work well in the park lands of major American cities. More specifically, whether the introduction of gray wolves into Fairmont Park in Philadelphia, the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Golden Gate Park in an Francisco, or Central Park in New York, might have a salutary effect on the local ecologies of these urban areas.
Opposition to such a scheme, of course, might be considerable—at least initially. One can easily anticipate the objections of neighborhood people: “A threat to children.” “An affront to the homeless.” A danger to community security.” The rhetoric is familiar. We have heard it all before.
Such quibbles, however, are easily addressed. Wolves, it happens, love children, and rarely eat one unless very hungry. More frequently, upon finding abandoned human children (especially twins), they raise them like family. And when finances permit, wolf parents will even send their own pups to Montessouri or Friends schools.
As for gray wolves in city parks being an affront to the homeless, well, what isn’t these day? A person has no money, no shelter, no regular health care, no meaningful job potential. What difference does a pack or two of hunting wolves really make to this individuals current or future prospects?
Letting gray wolves (or even hyenas) roam the urban parks that dot America’s cityscapes is in fact a natural extension of our present national ethic. If some jogging attorney or stock analyst is too weak or slow to outrun the pack, let nature take its course. If teen gangs that roam city parks after dark have members who insist on going off on their own, down they go and good riddance. The lame, the young, the weak, the halt, they will all just have to take their chances—just like the rest of us who are attempting to survive in today’s Bush America.
Let the real gray wolves, as well as the figurative kinds, hunt freely among us. Without doubt, those with the strength to fight, the speed to flee, or the cunning to evade, will do so. As for the rest, well…
EDITOR’S NOTE: This earlier appeared under the wrong byline. This post was put on a timer with the correct byline but when it appeared, another one on the list was at the top of this piece. This has happened one other time. We regret the error.
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 12:15 am and is filed under Satire, Humor, Society, Environment. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
