Wolves

Recently Professor Hirsch asked us to sort of post up something regarding our background and how we got to how we think today. I'm going to be honest when I say I don't really understand he wants us to go about that, so this post is sort of a shot in the dark.
My concern for the environment and a sustainable way of life was a direct consequence of my parents. I can't remember a summer we didn't spend in the Adirondacks camping and hiking, I loved to be out there. As I got older the trips got more intense and I loved it more and more. It was more then just enjoying the outdoors though, thanks much in part to my mom I grew a respect and connection to the woods. As time went on and tales of forest destruction, global warming and extinction started to actually started to mean something to me, I became very concerned. I quickly realized how closely everything was related, even as close to home as the Adirondacks. Global warming could lead to a change in the environment, could kill animals and could ruin much of my beloved northern forests. There where many global threats with very local affects and I made sure to educate myself as best I could. Perhaps my quest is selfish in that It began because I didn't want to lose what was close to me but it continues on today in a desire to protect the earth.
I guess my focus is on wildlife. I've always really enjoyed the company of animals regardless if they where pets or wild. I also feel they face the most immediate threat. Global warming, renewable energy, population and pollution will affect humans directly and these topics are starting to receive positive attention. However preservation of wildlife is not so lucky. While wildlife are affected by all those problems I listed above they too face other threats.
Perhaps the largest threat they face is us. Whether its clubbing of seals in Canada or the aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska, wildlife faces real time threats every moment.
While clubbing of seals is tragic, I feel aerial hunting of wolves is the problem which can be attacked more directly, mainly because it occurs in our own country. Simply stated there is no reason for such a form of hunting. Arguments about subsistence hunters and competition just don't make any scientific sense.
Let me first disprove any notion that it is subsistence and local hunters who use helicopters to hunt wolves. “Twice in the past 12 years, Alaska voters have approved state ballot initiatives to limit the use of aircraft to kill wildlife—and twice the state legislature, encouraged and abetted by the [appointed] board of game, has overridden the citizen-passed laws to restore use of aircraft,” states Rodger Schlickeisen of the non-profit Defenders of Wildlife.
Of course, the people killing the wolves are doing to to control predator population and allow subsistence hunters a chance at bagging some Caribu to survive. However many traditional hunters believe this hunting violates the ethics of hunting and fair chase.
Of course the Alaskan Board of game says their decision to allow aerial hunting of wolves is backed in science. However a lot scientists disagree.
It is problems like these that seem to avoid the public eye because it does not affect most people. Who cares about wolves in Alaska that we never see or hear? Even for people who care it is difficult to maintain awareness about such problems when you have your own life and your own concerns. This is why I fear for wildlife, they have no voice and rely solely on people to represent them, which is not an easy task to say the least.