Recommitting to Wildlife and Wild Lands

Each January I write about my commitment to protect wildlife and preserve wild lands. This year will bring a change in my approach, and I’ll describe that in a few moments. But first I want to thank the wolves that led me to advocating. I started following wolves down this path one winter ten years ago. That was the first of three winters that my wife Mary and I volunteered and lived at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch in the heart of Yellowstone’s wolf country. Part of our job was helping seminar participants spot wildlife. Since wolves topped the list of animals to see, I watched wolves almost every day.

I learned to identify specific wolves and discovered with amazement the distinct personalities of some. I observed wolves interacting within their family. I watched rival families battle over food, mates, or territory. And I listened to experts discuss what we saw each day. 

Slowly, I began to understand how essential wolves are. Not just in Yellowstone. Not just in the Rocky Mountains. Not just in the Great Lakes region. Wolves are essential wherever they’re allowed to live.

Some evenings I would return to our cabin at the Buffalo Ranch exhausted from a day of watching and learning. I would journal about what I had seen or heard, felt or wondered. As the winters added up, I found myself wanting to learn more about wolves. I read books and scientific articles. I interviewed experts. My early journal entries and that later research eventually came together in a book, In the Temple of Wolves: A Winter’s Immersion in Wild Yellowstone.

As that book became an Amazon best seller, I realized that I owed wolves. If I was to profit from a book about them, I needed to pay them back. One way to do that was to advocate. I waded in.

Over the last decade, I’ve written articles and social media posts. I’ve produced slideshows and podcasts. I’ve also been an active advocate: volunteering with conservation organizations; presenting to individuals, groups, and the media; speaking with legislators at our state capital and in Washington D.C. 

Seven years ago, drawn by Yellowstone, Mary and I left Oregon—our home for 36 years. We moved to Gardiner, Montana, at the park’s north gate. That move led to another book: Deep into Yellowstone: A Year’s Immersion in Grandeur and Controversy. While writing that book, I realized that the battle we fight goes beyond protecting any one species. The battle is about protecting wildlife and preserving wild lands.   

As a new year and another Yellowstone winter unfolds, I want to reaffirm my commitment to wildlife and wild lands. And I want to change my approach. 

This year I will spend less time in active advocacy (volunteering, presenting, speaking)  and more time writing about how and why we can change our relationship with wild lands and wildlife, especially wolves, coyotes, and bison, my favorite Yellowstone neighbors. Each of these creatures has an incredible natural history and an essential place in this ecosystem we share with them. Each deserves our best efforts to move toward coexisting and away from killing.

This year I want my writing to bring together ideas and actions, facts and feelings that you and I can use in our efforts to make this world a better place for wildlife, wild lands—and for us.

I would love to read in a comment or private message about your goal for this year as a supporter of wildlife and wild lands. 

Award-winning Indie author Rick Lamplugh writes and photographs to protect wildlife and wild lands. 

His award-winning book In the Temple of Wolves; its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone; and its prequel, The Wilds of Aging are available signed. His books are also available unsigned or as eBook or audiobook on Amazon.

You can also join Rick in his latest writing adventure, a free weekly letter to subscribers entitled Love the Wild. You’ll find excerpts from his books, podcasts, photo essays, opinion pieces, and more. All aim to excite your mind and warm your heart.

Photo Credit:

Photo of Rick by Mary Strickroth