The first of The Monday Letters
this week’s letter dives into some thoughts that have been swirling around in my head since finishing a NatGeo series on wild wolves. Thinking about their life, untouched by the human presence and how our impact has shaped the natural world more than we may realize.
Lately I’ve been binging a NatGeo series, Kingdom of the White Wolves that follows an explorer as he tracks and documents the last of the truly wild wolves in the high Arctic. Wolves have been notoriously hunted throughout history, resulting in a deep engrained fear of humans. Therefore any attempt to document and study their natural behavior in the wild is essentially null and void since that fear dictates completely unnatural behavior in response to any presence of humans.
Ronan Donovan followed a pack of wolves around Ellesmere Island during the brief 3-month span of an Arctic summer before the brutal winter set in. Wolves that have never interacted with humans. Donovan detailed the experience in an interview, “There are no trees, a frozen ocean, a sun that never sets, and white wolves that'll walk up to a landing helicopter because they're curious. It's unlike anywhere I've ever been. I was there for the short Arctic summer, so all the wildlife is in a mad dash to absorb as much of the sun's energy before it dips below the horizon for six months of frigid winter. I'm a scientist by training, so to be immersed in a totally new ecosystem, especially one of such extremes, was just exhilarating.”
“I still don't fully understand what the wolves see humans as. I wasn't considered a threat, nor was I prey. It seems they look to humans as some third animal—one they respect.”
Ronan ultimately gathered information leading him to better fully understand how much alike humans and wolves really are. They have a similar devoted, close-knit family structure and operate in groups much like we tend to as well. They welcomed him to observe their pack from a distance and many times up close and a bit too personal for comfort. They have never known an existence where humans lived alongside them. For as far as they know, within their isolated world on this island in the Tundra, we don’t exist. They know of the hares and the muskoxen and the birds. They know their place in the order of natural things and their role. Humans, however- a complete mystery. No reason to fear us, no taste for our flesh and perhaps a kindred spirit.
I resonate deeply with Ronan’s mission and manifesto for what the wolves and their wild-ness mean to him and the rest of the world.
He quotes Harvey Broome who founded The Wilderness Society: "If we lose wilderness, we lose forever the knowledge of what the world was."
Humans have never existed in a world without intact wilderness, and we won't survive without it. This informs all of my work and keeps me motivated to conserve what wilderness we have left.
This makes me question our interaction with every living thing over the span of time. How have we shaped our ecosystem beyond recognition and how can we return to it to it’s original glory and preserve it? What other creatures now behave completely unnaturally from what God intended due to our missteps and attempts at complete dominion over the animal world?
As I drive down the back country roads of Florida, my eyes scan the miles and miles of overgrazed land, mono-crops and highly industrialized agriculture operations. It makes sense, with our seemingly never-ending growing season and average rainfall but still makes me sad to think about. I wonder if I even know the true landscape around me. Does it even resemble the same land our ancestors once walked upon and traversed through? Invasive species, endangered species, land preservation and conservation. What do all of these have in common? Us. Our impact and footprint in the age of the Anthropocene. All these things are only necessary due to the havoc we’ve caused with the way we live and move about the world. The superior species—or so we believe—take what we think belongs to us, treat it poorly, and then leave for someone else to clean up.
I have a brighter dream for the future of us and of the wild things. A dream where we can exist side by side in harmony as God desired it when he created this stunningly magnificent planet. Through allowing things to just be as they are, and honoring the qualities that make them unique and special, we can preserve what remains of the natural and wild. Each creature was created with it’s own inherent gifts to live it’s own unique existence. Wolves have the innate ability of smell and tracking prey for miles over great distances. Humans have the innate ability of consciousness and self-awareness.
How can we use our unique gifts as humans to honor and respect the gifts of every other creature under the sun?
At the end of the day, we’re all misunderstood. We all have the instincts within us to protect our own fiercely and to fight for life. We will do it by any means necessary and that’s ok. That instinct is there for a reason. Somewhere along the way greed crept in. The desire to take more and more than we needed led us to abandon our conscience and what we know in our hearts is right and good. We decided our needs surpassed the needs of an ecosystem and acted destructively as such. We must humble ourselves in the face of nature and realize our place within it. We are not top predator in the wilderness. We possess nothing of worth that can’t be bought with money and have lost the ancient wisdom and traditions that our forefathers believed in. Most of us don’t even know what it truly means to be human.
Foundations of community, family, faith, nature, respect, love, humility, compassion, and grace. This world was not created for us and does not revolve around us, even though it may seem like it. We’ve created it to be so. We are merely another organism with a divine purpose to fulfill while we take up space and breathe oxygen on this green planet. We have a duty to use our gifts and live a life in harmony with the natural world and allow it to reach it’s full splendor. I find purpose in this task and believe I can use my gifts to contribute towards the great mission.
Through my writing, through my passion for wild, native plants and restoring ecosystems to function naturally as they once did, through capturing the essence and beauty of the wild through photography and storytelling, through regenerating land with mindful agriculture practices and doing my best each day to find balance and create balance where it lacks. To sustain myself with the fruit of the land and not take more than I need. Consume less, create more. Leave only footprints, take only memories. Leave it better than you found it. Whichever mantra speaks to you, take it with you into your week and see how you can tweak your life to make more space for the natural and the wild. Maybe let the spider in your doorway be, who’s he really bothering anyways?
Thanks for reading. Farewell and talk soon,
—Haley
Well said. Thank you for the introduction and story of the wild white wolves. I especially enjoyed the finish of the spider in the doorway...
I am truly speechless at the eloquence combined with brutal truth you shared in boldness. Thank you for another inspiring read!