Jim Beers
This morning I was asked by colleagues if the following newspaper article about historic wolf incidents in New Jersey was an appropriate addition to the site. My comments are below and are followed by the subject article. (I sent a thank you and copy of these comments to the author and her newspaper, the New Jersey Herald.)
(I would insert the following caveat when introducing this article.)
The following article is a very encouraging sign to those familiar with the wolf/wildlife management/human dimensions issue for the following reasons:
1. It is truthful and candid about the historic record of wolves in the Mid-Atlantic Colonies and then States of the United States.
2. It accurately describes the very harmful effects of living with wolves without attributing any mystical benefits or fictional biology to justify introducing wolves or coercing communities to live with them.
3. That it emerges from New Jersey, one of the most urban and densely populated states is surprising. New Jersey is a state noted for animal “rights”/welfare hysteria and political battles with environmental extremists as demonstrated by the decades-old battles to force black bears (originally re-introduced to NW New Jersey to create a pocket of bears for hunting in a thinly-settled corner of the state) into urban and densely settled parts of the State with NO controls or hunting to minimize the human safety issues they create while opposing any hunting or gun rights. That such a state newspaper would publish such an article may indicate a public turn toward common sense wildlife management and animal control as wise public policy in the heart of the “we want wolves imposed on those Americans “out there” because we think they are just whiners for not accepting what “we think is best for them!”
4. I must admit to a sexist remark here based on my 50+ years’ experience with state and federal wildlife management and enforcement. I am so pleasantly surprised that a lady wrote this article that I am tempted to say a prayer of thanks. For decades, women have been hired and promoted in the field of wildlife management and wildlife control in large part because they have (opinions, emotions, principles, standards – take your pick) that no animal should be manipulated or killed for any reason. Hunting, animal damage control, and complete buy-in to “non-lethal” controls that are only temporary, “compensation” that never was nor would ever be available in even minimal amounts, and the romantic notions of cleansing a national ecosystem of the pollution from European settlement to restore an unrealistic “native ecosystem”. Government Forests, Government Wildlife Offices and Government Land Management Offices are heavily populated by such women. Public media, for decades now, has featured things like young women in government agency uniforms holding what is purported to be a “wolf puppy” in the crook of her arm as she creates the image of nurturing a helpless and “lovable” animal. That a lady wrote this article is more encouraging and hopeful to an old man like me than I can express in words.
5. I can offer only one tongue-in-cheek observation of little matter. The closing sentence (I do this myself) is an attempt to leave the reader with the impression that given the foregoing truthful statements that may make the reader uneasy that the author is a “good Joe” or in this case a “good “Jodie” that is not a radical or ideologue. When she says, “As for Space, when he hears the coyotes in his zoo howl and he hears the coyotes in the wild howl back at them, it serves as a reminder that the wolf still remains in the Sussex County area, but only in the DNA of the Eastern coyote” I am reminded of many people that shared the following observation with me over the years, “You know Mr. Beers, soon after the wolves moved in here our coyotes started disappearing and you know, what? The coyotes don’t howl anymore because we think the wolves will locate them and try to kill them.” May New Jersey never get wolves and may they never lose the occasional coyote yip or howl in the evening that I enjoyed so much years ago when as a young married man I lived in Nebraska as a US Game Management Agent.
Thank you Ms. Sweetman and thank you New Jersey Herald for a fine, and more-important-than-you-can-imagine, bit of journalism and historical wildlife management.
If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others. Thanks.
Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.
History
The wolves have left the county -- or have they?
SUSSEX COUNTY -- One of the problems encountered by the early Sussex County residents was wild animals, especially wolves.
One local historian to write about this problem was the Rev. Alanson A. Haines, who compiled a history of local events in his book "Hardyston Memorial" in 1888.
Haines wrote, "The first white settlers were greatly troubled by beasts of prey. Panthers, bears, wildcats and wolves dwelt in the woods, and often prowled around the settlers' homes, killing sheep and calves, and even threatening men. Hunters were compelled to keep their fires burning all night when they bivouacked on the mountains. Wolf scalps or heads were nailed on the outside of many a cabin, a pleasing exhibition of the hunter's success in the chase after these ravagers.
"The destruction caused by a single wolf, or a pair of wolves, for they generally went in pairs, in one night among a flock of sheep would be fearful. The old wolves became exceedingly cunning to escape pursuit or to avoid the traps set for them, and the she wolves, when they had young, were the fiercest and most ravenous."
Haines described the American gray wolf as "nearly four feet long, with a bushy tail of 18 or 20 inches. Some overgrown specimens might have been even larger. Although about the same height and length as the European wolf, the American was more muscular and had more powerful jaws. The general color was a grey, with some much lighter than others."
Continuing to discuss the American wolf, Haines wrote, "Sometimes a great hunt would be organized for the destruction of a single wolf, which had broken into some sheep fold. The hunters surrounded a large district, or a mountain side, within which they supposed the wolf was lurking, and then came in closer and closer until it was found. Wolves are afraid of fire, and of the human eye, and seldom attack men. Large bounties were paid for killing wolves."
As early as June 1682, a bounty of 15 shillings per head for wolves was offered by each county, and 15 shillings additional were paid by the town within whose limits the animals might be killed; excepting the towns in Somerset, where seven shillings were paid. In 1695, these bounties were repealed, and it was left to the discretion of each town to adopt such measures as might be necessary to exterminate the wolves.
"In July 1730, the bounty for a full grown wolf was 20 shillings; for a 'whelp not able to prey', it was five. But presumably these amounts were insufficient and in 1751, the bounties were increased to 60 shillings for wolves and 10 shillings for whelps."
Benjamin Edsall, in his "Centennial Address" in 1853, wrote that "the taxes collected in the county during the years 1753-54 furnished the means of defraying expenses. The sum of 100 pounds were paid for wolf scalps, or nearly three times as much as it cost to erect the county jail at Johnsonburg.
What happened to the wolves in Sussex County? Fred Space, one of the county's foremost experts on wildlife, says that the wolves were gone long before his time and presumably in the 1800s. Space's understanding is that a wolf demands a lot of territory and they were shot off by the early settlers. Due to competition with the early settlers, the wolves were not able to survive here. The coyotes that migrated down from Canada have adapted, Space says. "The coyotes are able to survive in heavily populated areas. They are cunning and they reproduce in large numbers and have a 90 percent survival rate.
"But," says Space, "in a sense, the wolf has not entirely disappeared, as the DNA of the Eastern coyote is 25 percent wolf and 75 percent coyote. The Eastern coyote," says Space, "is sometimes alluded to as a 'crowolf.'?" Space explains in support of this theory that the Eastern male coyote weighs between 50 and 60 pounds, while a Western male coyote weighs between 30 and 35 pounds.
As noted by Haines, many times a hunt would be held to capture a wolf that had caused considerable damage. Two versions of the wolf hunt, described as one of the last to be held in Sussex County, have survived in written format. And although they vary slightly, they do provide an idea of how the wolf hunts took place so many years ago. The hero, in both accounts places "Buckey" (Thomas) DeKay as the main character, with the estimated guess of taking place in the early winter of 1807, with David Strait credited as the narrator.
Here's one version of the story. "An old she wolf for some years had committed many depredations, killing the farmers' sheep and even young cattle in many sections, and had become so wary as to avoid all traps that had been set for its capture. These depredations had become more and more frequent, first in the Sparta mountain, next night in the Hamburgh or Wawayanda mountains.
"The wolf had killed a number of sheep for William Headley, a brother-in-law of David Strait, at Milton. As there was a good tracking snow, Strait and Headley and several other of the neighbors organized that morning with a determination that now that old wolf must die for the many misdeeds she had done.
"She had been tracked through the mountain to Stockholm, and from thence to Canisteer, and by a long roundabout way to Vernon, where that night it had killed some sheep at 'Buckey' DeKay's. The party reached there soon after the wolf had committed the bloody act, in the early morning, having traveled day and night. When the extent of the old wolf's work elsewhere was made known to Mr. DeKay he demanded a rest and provided a bountiful breakfast for the hunting party.
"In the meantime he organized a new party with hounds and muskets, who joined with the others, and followed in pursuit of the wolf. The wolf was overtaken about noon and shot at but managed to escape, and it was not until late in the afternoon that it was finally surrounded at Beaver Dam, between Snufftown and Franklin. The hounds there closed in upon her; but many of them were killed in short order. It was here that 'Buckey' DeKay rushed in upon the conflict between the hounds and wolf, and with one well-directed blow upon the head of the wolf, killed it with his musket, and the hounds were released from their great chase.
"A bounty of $100 had been offered for the wolf, dead or alive, so its carcass was taken to the tavern at Snufftown, 'Buckey' placed the wolf carcass in an upright position, put a pipe in his mouth, and then treated everybody to whiskey. A general time of rejoicing was held and the wolf was kept on exhibition all night and everyone went to see it."
As for Space, when he hears the coyotes in his zoo howl and he hears the coyotes in the wild howl back at them, it serves as a reminder that the wolf still remains in the Sussex County area, but only in the DNA of the Eastern coyote.
Jennie Sweetman is the history columnist for the New Jersey Herald. She may be contacted at jenniee@warwick.net.