Teachers get close-up look at wolf issue
By ALISON PRIDE Chronicle Staff Writer
“Wolf management isn’t that hard,”
Carolyn Sime told a group of teachers.
“What’s more complicated is the human component.”
The group had just returned from three days in Yellowstone National Park
studying wolves and the issues surrounding them.
The weekend workshop was run by the Big Sky Institute and funded by
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks with a grant from the federal
government.
Sime, a research wildlife biologist with FWP, said dialogue with people on
all sides of the issue is key to protecting both the interests of people
and wolves.
“We have to understand a way through this, but until I understand your
point of view, I don’t know how to work with you,” she said. “As long as
this issue stays polarized, we’re not problem solving.”
Part of the problem-solving process is understanding current research on
wolves, said Robin Hompesch, a wildlife biology teacher at Bozeman High
School and K-12 education coordinator for Big Sky Institute.
The workshop was designed to connect local educators with local
scientists, she said, “and to look not at just the science but also the
bio-political arena in which we live.” It drew teachers from all over
Montana and even one from Idaho.
Teachers heard from a variety of experts, but also spent time talking to
ranchers and outfitters.
Hompesch believes the workshop will help teachers take scientific data
into the classrooms and teach students to look at the wolf data, educating
a new generation of students to join the dialogue.
“The bottom line is, ‘How do we have wildlife in 200 years?'” she said.
The weekend workshop was the fourth in a series run by BSI. Previous
workshops focused on grizzly bears, songbirds and native fish.
For Marc Elser, a teacher at Ennis High School for 30 years, the weekend
changed his perspective on wolves.
Elser has a background in ranching and hunting and is empathetic toward
ranchers, he said. He was initially against the reintroduction of wolves.
Since then, he’s followed wolves’ progress with his classes, watching them
spread into new territories.
Wolves are here to stay, he said.
Through data, he said, “we were able to see that, yes, they’re killing
elk, but not 10,000 elk,” and that other factors, like drought, are
affecting elk populations as well.
“We’ve got to get out and listen to experts instead of reading it in the
paper,” Elser said. “That’s what I can take back to the classroom.”
It’s all part of coming to a compromise people and wolves can live with in
the future. In most cases, he believes the only way the states can manage
wolves is as a game animal.
“How do we educate people to understand that they’re here to stay and
we’ve got to come to some sort of middle ground that’s reasonable and
feasible?” he said.
Fourth-grade teacher Jeremy Harder said he was going to require some
time to process everything he learned, but that he’d eventually like to be
able to present all sides of the issue to his students.
Harder, who teaches at the Ophir School in Big Sky, said making his
students informed was important so they could then create their own
theories about wolf management.
“The ecosystem is so dynamic, everyone
is touched by it,” Harder said. “But right now there’s a lot of emotion,
with people feeling an inequity on their side. It can work, but people
have to work together.”
The lack of communication is the crux of the issue, he said. How the
problem gets solved is important to the next generation of students.
“We’re trying to present problem solving in a non-violent manner,”
Harder said. “Part of our job as educators is to model good positive
problem-solving skills, and a huge part of that is communication.”