Think Like a Mountain
Credit to Aldo Leopold for the title and some of the content of this article...
Yellowstone offers lots of opportunities to see wildlife. Driving through the park, it is quite common to come upon a "wildlife jam"... a traffic jam caused by tourists stopping to take photos of a bison or elk that happens to be grazing near the road. Almost two years ago we happened upon one of these "wildlife jams." We weren't able to navigate around this jam, so I decided to get out of our vehicle to see what was so interesting... It was an Elk... running up the river that parallels the road in that area of the park. I took a series of photos in rapid succession... The following slideshowchronicleswhat we saw. I added some text from an essay by Aldo Leopold, titled "Think Like A Mountain" to some images at the end of the slideshow. Aldo Leopold's essay makes a very pertinent point... and I have more to say about it...
But first... look at the slideshow. Note:
The best way to view the slideshow is in full screen mode. You can do that by running the embedded slideshow below and then clicking on the full screen button in the lower right corner. Or you can just
click here to open another window in full screen mode .
As much as I felt sorry for that elk... I must say... I was rooting for the Wolf! I suppose in part because I have a strong affinity for wolves... but also for the following reason expressed so eloquently by Aldo Leopold in his essay:
(Excerpt from Think Like a Mountain)
I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God a new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise. In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-lined junipers.I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades.
You can read the entire Think Like A Mountain essay here ... I suggest you do... It is verypoignant!!!
I want to say something about Aldo Leopold's words which I embedded in theprecedingslideshow ( the first two and last two sentences of his essay )...
A deep chesty bawl echoes from rimrock to rimrock,
rolls down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night.
It is an outburst of wild defiant sorrow, and of contempt for all the adversities of the world.Perhaps this is behind Thoreau's dictum: In wildness is the salvation of the world.
Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf,
long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men.
Aldo Leopold's essay, and especially those words, resonate with me.
"An outburst of wild defiant sorrow, and of contempt for all the adversities of the world."
I feel that wild defiant sorrow, and contempt for the adversaries of the world...
and I am very sorry to say...
I'm part of this world's biggest adversity...
the human species.
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Please understand... I am NOT advocating against guns!
I am advocating against hunting for sport, and especially AGAINST "Wolf Population Management"!!!!
Beautiful photo essay Mal! Wonderful words to go with it, too.
I happen to agree with you about this Mal. Wolves are part of the balance in the park and provide control to the deer and elk population. It took so long to repopulate the park with wolves, and I can't get my head wrapped around the idea that now we are allowing them to be "controlled" because of a profit margin. We on Long Island are having a similar problem with our deer population. They have no naturalpredators, and so their numbers grow, and eat everything in site. And although I enjoy seeing them in my in-laws backyard, I more often see them dead, under someone's car, with the driver totallytraumatized. But we can't bring the wolf back to Long Island, since it is too densely populated and we can't have a hunt for the same reason. We have put nature out of balance, and we tend to do this so often. We encroach on nature, and then we get upset when they try to reclaim what belongs to it.
The native Americans understood this much better than we will ever do.
Hi Perrie,
Not JUST the park... but the whole world...Ranchers outside the park want to exterminate the wolves because they impact theprofitabilityof their ranching business. The wolves, deer, Elk and other wildlife lived in balance for many thousands of years before the ranchers arrived... I think the wolves and other wildlife have as much right (more really) to live where they have always lived as usprofiteeringhumans. The Native Americans lived in balance with the wildlife... It is time we "civilized" Americans did the same.
Very true. But what most people don't know, is that it's even in the bible.
"In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety." (Hosea 2:18)
Job 12:7-10 -But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
Isaiah 11:9 -They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 24:4-6 -The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.
Revelation 11:18 -The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great and for destroying those who destroy the earth.
Last one is a bitominous, yea?
Excellent quotes Perrie! I especially like the first and second quotes... Hosea and Job...
Great article Mal and wonderful shots too!
Read a book a number of years back by Clive Barker (horror / fantasy usually) called "Sacrament"...
Sacrament is a 1996 novel by British author Clive Barker .
~WIKI~
Can't remember the characters names but there is one part that really touched me. The Pet dog and the wild coyotee would meet at the edge of the forest and visit, the coyotee always trying to convince the pet to come over to the wild side and be free. The Pet dog always refused because he and humans had a pact. One dat the pet dog showed up in the forest saying he was ready to live in the wild. When asked what had changed his mind the dog replied " man broke his word, he promised to always take care of the meat and the flowers, but he lied and didn't, so I left". Taking care of the meat and flowers of course being symbolic for man being a steward. The entire book is really about reltionships with each other, critters and our beautiful planet.
Thanks Larry!
And thanks for the tip on the Clive Barker book!
The pleasure is all mine Mal. Thank you; that essay is alone will keep me thinking.