This Wolf thing comes down to a follow the dollar thing. Weyerhauser tried to introduce wolves back in the 60's when I worked as a logger in the woods. They dropped at least 25 in the Wahkiakum/Cowlitz areas.
They were dropped to help eliminate elk and deer which were feeding on young trees the timber companies planted. At that time they also had a bear elimination program. My pastor from Quilcene was a part of that.
Weyerhauser hired hundreds of environmentalists in the 1980's to do their bidding for the giant timber company. Re-Introduction of wolves was one of their agendas. Weyerhauser also used them to help run other timber companies out of business by finding endangered species on their properties. Weyerhauser has been a "dirty tricks" company since the early 1900's.
My own personal introduction to the wolf program began when I worked for Crown Zellerbach. A pair of timber cutters we worked with found a cage attached to a parachute hanging from a 30 ft. evergreen tree.
It had a dead wolf in it that had apparently died of starvation. It had the end of one foot missing and parts of that stuck in a crack of the cage. The cage was built so the sides would spring open when it hit the ground. It didn't do that and hung in the tree top instead.
The cage and chute disappeared the day after we saw it.
That fall I had another "run in" with wolves while deer hunting east of Cathlamet and north of the Columbia river in the Beaver Creek drainage. I left my car in late afternoon and walked down a new road that had been built into the second growth. I heard a low howl and walked toward it. When I rounded a corner there was a pack of about six wolves shredding a baby elk they had just killed. At the same time i heard noises and growls to both sides of me in the timber. I made a quick retreat to my car, running backwards.
I was afraid they'd jump me from behind. The two wolves nearest me kept pace with me and I'd get glimpses of them in the brush. I got to the car in a hurry. It was getting dark and I was shaking like a leaf.
By the time I got done fumbling with the car keys and getting the door locked I could hear the whole pack coming, barking like big dogs and howling. I fired two quick shots to give me time to get in the car and all of a sudden everything turned deadly silent. They just quit making noise. I beat it out of there! I told my Dad about the run in and the county sheriff. The sheriff said the wolves had started killing beef cattle in Cowlitz county. Not long after that, the state hired professional exterminators to poison and get rid of the wolves. They got a lot of them but not all of them. My Dad saw one up the Elochomin River two years later.
My cousin and Uncle were with him at the time.
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