What Wolves Tell Us about Our Relationship with Nature

Three wolves of Middle Pack patrolling their territorial boundary. The wolves of Middle Pack are central to the story told in 'Restoring the Balance.'

Source: J. A. Vucetich, with permission.

I’ve long been eagerly anticipating the publication of wolf expert Dr. John Vucetich’s book titled Restoring the Balance: What Wolves Tell Us about Our Relationship with Nature, a detailed account spanning more than 60 years, of the wolves and moose who live on the boreal forest ecosystem of Isle Royale National Park, in which John has been actively involved for more than 25 years.^1,2,3 John’s wide-ranging book goes way beyond the lives of the wolves, and he is right on the mark in his unyielding claim that wolves are an excellent choice for forcing us to think about how “compassion-soaked reasoning...may be essential for favoring fair coexistence with biodiversity.”

There’s something for just about everybody in Restoring the Balance, and I’m thrilled John could take the time to answer a few questions about his landmark book that is bound to become a classic. Here’s what he had to say.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Restoring the Balance, and how does it relate to your background and general areas of interest?

John Vucetich: I began studying wolves on Isle Royale National Park, a remote wilderness island in Lake Superior, as a student researcher when I was 18. Three decades later, I’m still at it. Reflections from all that time accumulated, and they pounded against the walls of my mind, needing to escape. So, I let them out into this book, Restoring the Balance: What Wolves Tell Us about Our Relationship with Nature.

Source: Johns Hopkins University Press, with permission.

MB: Who is your intended audience?

JV: Restoring the Balance is braided with strands of natural history, memoir, and exposition on humanity’s relationship with nature. The book will be treasured by any thoughtful reader looking to deepen their relationship with nature and learn about the wolves of Isle Royale along the way. The ideas are sophisticated enough for scholars, and the writing is accessible to any engaged reader.’

MB: What are some of the topics you weave into your book, and what are some of your major messages?

JV: As much as anything Restoring the Balance is a story of the wolves on Isle Royale. I’ve been so fortunate to be able to follow the lives of these wolves from day to day, year to year, and generation to generation. In my book, I share their story and mine–what my colleagues and I have learned and how we learned from observations made from the cockpit of a small plane to genetic clues and secrets locked in the bones of moose that wolves prey upon.

The most important lesson that I’ve ever learned is difficult to tell in the august pages of scientific journals. But I am free to tell it here in Restoring the Balance. It’s a lesson that I’ve known for some time now. Very simply: these animals–the wolves of Isle Royale–they have lives–Individual lives like you and I. They know what happened yesterday, they have plans for what comes next, and they have interests. To see that unfold in all of its particulars really changes a person’s view of nature–all nature. Because if wolves have lives, then it’s only a small step to realize that squirrels have lives, robins have lives. All the living creatures who we share the planet with–they all have lives. They are not resources for us to conserve, so much as they are brothers and sisters with whom to share.

The alpha female of Middle Pack leading packmates in a chase triggered by a territorial dispute with a neighboring pack.

Source: J. A. Vucetich, with permission.

The book’s title refers to a recent decision by the National Park Service (NPS) to restore wolves to Isle Royale after they’d come to the brink of extinction, an indirect and wholly unexpected consequence of climate change. That decision was not easy for the NPS to make.

I believe the NPS made the right decision. But elements of why it was a right thing to do are, I think, a little unresolved. And, the answer is important to get right because the answers speak volumes about so much more than the wolves of Isle Royale. The answers say a great deal about how we ought to relate to nature in a world dominated by humans and profoundly affected by climate change. An important part of Restoring the Balance is an exploration of different ways to answer those questions.

MB: Do you feel optimistic that as people learn more about wolves, they’ll treat them with more respect, dignity, and compassion?

JV: Wolves are also increasingly subjected to shameful, hate-filled persecution. I don’t really know how the next couple years will play out. And, I think we face a long road to discover what it means for humans to coexist with wolves and the rest of nature in a way that allows us to flourish, but not at the expense of others. As we make that journey it can be useful to have a vision that offers a glimpse of what that coexistence might look like. To that end, Restoring the Balance offers such a glimpse.

Do I have hope? There is an enormous gap between where we are and where we ought to be. Many look across that gap for signs of hope. For my own part, I don’t have any special insight about the future. I suppose some aspects of tomorrow will be worse than we expect and other aspects will be better than we expect. But that doesn’t concern me nearly as much as knowing that there is always hope that at any single moment anyone can discover and do the right thing. That’s where my hope lies.

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Michael Nelson and I elaborate on the notion of hope in Abandon Hope.