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Author Topic: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus  (Read 5996 times)

Offline bobcat

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New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« on: July 10, 2018, 06:58:04 PM »
Quote
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf Scientist?

Rob Wielgus was one of America’s pre-eminent experts on large carnivores. Then he ran afoul of the enemies of the wolf.

By Christopher Solomon

July 5, 2018

You might not guess from looking at him that Rob Wielgus was until recently a tenured professor of wildlife ecology. Wielgus likes to spend time in the backwoods of the American West that lie off the edge of most tourist maps, and he dresses the part: motorcycle leathers, tattoos on both forearms, the stringy hairs of a goatee dangling like lichen from his lower lip. Atop his bald head he often wears a battered leather bush hat of the type seen at Waylon Jennings concerts. A Camel smolders in his face like a fuse. The first time I called him, he told me that he couldn’t chat because he was riding his Harley home from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.

When we met last fall, Wielgus, who is 61, wasn’t wearing his bush hat, however, but a straw cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes. He was, he explained, in disguise. We had rendezvoused in Republic, a faded former mining town of about a thousand people in the northeastern part of Washington State. Stores wore boomtown facades to tempt passing drivers and their dollars to linger. But this was mid-October: Pickup trucks throttled past on the main drag, hauling hay and firewood for a winter that would slump down from Canada any day.

Wielgus had spent years in the surrounding woods doing research, and he loved the area. Now he considered it hostile territory. Before he pushed through the swinging doors of a bar, he paused and lifted an untucked shirt to show me the black handle of a .357 handgun poking from the front pocket of his jeans. “Too many death threats,” he said. “I never started carrying this till I started studying wolves.”

Not long ago, Wielgus was a respected researcher at Washington State University in Pullman, in the far eastern part of the state, with his own prosperous lab and several graduate students under his guidance. His specialty was North American apex predators — mountain lions and bears. Over a 35-year career, Wielgus has published surprising research about how these animals behave, especially once their paths cross with civilization. Unlike some wildlife research, which can be esoteric, Wielgus’s work by its nature has concrete, real-world implications. And Wielgus, by his nature, hasn’t been shy about emerging from academia to tell wildlife managers, ranchers and politicians exactly how they have screwed up and why they should pay more attention to him and his findings. He is accustomed to being the least-popular man in the room.

Wielgus had no idea how unpopular he could get, though, until he began to study wolves. By the time I met him, his academic reputation lay in shreds. His lab was essentially shuttered. He was $50,000 in debt, he said, and he had had to pull his daughters out of college. His career, he told me, was over.

More here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/magazine/whos-afraid-of-the-big-bad-wolf-scientist.html

Offline Bob33

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2018, 07:40:47 PM »
The full article is lengthy but interesting.
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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2018, 07:56:56 PM »
Lol so he Carrie's a 357 into a bar huh? Interesting tid but to share... Some how I think the state won't take that admission as seriously as if it was some one else.

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Offline Nwgunner

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2018, 08:18:35 PM »
Good read.  Thanks for the link.  Never thought I would agree with UW over WSU for anything.

Offline Curly

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2018, 08:57:15 PM »
Decent article.  I think he got a couple things wrong,  but at least it seemed like he tried to approach the article from a neutral perspective.
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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2018, 09:25:10 PM »
Lol so he Carrie's a 357 into a bar huh? Interesting tid but to share... Some how I think the state won't take that admission as seriously as if it was some one else.

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I picked up on that immediately too and commented on Facebook.  Elicited a few "what are you doing trying to get him into trouble?" PM's.

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2018, 09:32:40 PM »
He gotta pack a 357 'cause the ranchers are gonna kill him  :chuckle:   :rolleyes:   ya right, he's so full of BS. 

quote from the article:
They also knew that the ranch had set salt blocks nearby, which attract cattle, who lick them for the needed minerals. But even after the first livestock was confirmed killed in early July, no one moved the salt blocks, “and no one moved the livestock,” Wielgus said. Trail cameras used to monitor the pack showed that cows were all around the area through July. Once the area’s deer, a preferred prey, were scared off by the cows, wolves opportunistically attacked cattle, he said. Wielgus insists to this day that the Diamond M’s patriarch, Len McIrvin, could have been prodded by the state to take steps — quickly moving the salt blocks, removing cattle from the den site — to avoid serious problems.

those blocks have been there for years, the salt is in the dirt, the locations are memorized by the cattle.  WDFW did not tell Diamond M the wolves were "a couple miles away", which in that country might as well be 50 miles, you aren't going to know wolves are 2 miles away  :bash: 

Cattle do not "scare off all the deer"  total utter BS lie, the deer will walk right through a herd of cattle..the freaking wolves scare the deer off (or eat them)

"wolves opportunistically attacked cattle" the only true thing in his quote.

He's blaming Diamond M for utilizing a grazing lease they lawfully acquired when WDFW didn't tell them a wolf den was nearby?  no one asked them to move the salt, yet Weilgus said they did it intentionally (dropped the cows on top of a wolf den). 

Weilgus is a fraud and liar.

Offline buglebrush

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2018, 10:14:28 PM »
He gotta pack a 357 'cause the ranchers are gonna kill him  :chuckle:   :rolleyes:   ya right, he's so full of BS. 

quote from the article:
They also knew that the ranch had set salt blocks nearby, which attract cattle, who lick them for the needed minerals. But even after the first livestock was confirmed killed in early July, no one moved the salt blocks, “and no one moved the livestock,” Wielgus said. Trail cameras used to monitor the pack showed that cows were all around the area through July. Once the area’s deer, a preferred prey, were scared off by the cows, wolves opportunistically attacked cattle, he said. Wielgus insists to this day that the Diamond M’s patriarch, Len McIrvin, could have been prodded by the state to take steps — quickly moving the salt blocks, removing cattle from the den site — to avoid serious problems.

those blocks have been there for years, the salt is in the dirt, the locations are memorized by the cattle.  WDFW did not tell Diamond M the wolves were "a couple miles away", which in that country might as well be 50 miles, you aren't going to know wolves are 2 miles away  :bash: 

Cattle do not "scare off all the deer"  total utter BS lie, the deer will walk right through a herd of cattle..the freaking wolves scare the deer off (or eat them)

"wolves opportunistically attacked cattle" the only true thing in his quote.

He's blaming Diamond M for utilizing a grazing lease they lawfully acquired when WDFW didn't tell them a wolf den was nearby?  no one asked them to move the salt, yet Weilgus said they did it intentionally (dropped the cows on top of a wolf den). 

Weilgus is a fraud and liar.

 :yeah:

Offline JimmyHoffa

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #8 on: July 10, 2018, 10:38:00 PM »
sounds like a drama queen

Offline pianoman9701

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #9 on: July 11, 2018, 07:19:42 AM »
Poor Wielgus. Unfairly targeted for fudging data to shore up his personal views. What's science coming to when you can't shape it to your liking?
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Offline wolfbait

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #10 on: July 11, 2018, 08:34:16 AM »
He gotta pack a 357 'cause the ranchers are gonna kill him  :chuckle:   :rolleyes:   ya right, he's so full of BS. 

quote from the article:
They also knew that the ranch had set salt blocks nearby, which attract cattle, who lick them for the needed minerals. But even after the first livestock was confirmed killed in early July, no one moved the salt blocks, “and no one moved the livestock,” Wielgus said. Trail cameras used to monitor the pack showed that cows were all around the area through July. Once the area’s deer, a preferred prey, were scared off by the cows, wolves opportunistically attacked cattle, he said. Wielgus insists to this day that the Diamond M’s patriarch, Len McIrvin, could have been prodded by the state to take steps — quickly moving the salt blocks, removing cattle from the den site — to avoid serious problems.

those blocks have been there for years, the salt is in the dirt, the locations are memorized by the cattle.  WDFW did not tell Diamond M the wolves were "a couple miles away", which in that country might as well be 50 miles, you aren't going to know wolves are 2 miles away  :bash: 

Cattle do not "scare off all the deer"  total utter BS lie, the deer will walk right through a herd of cattle..the freaking wolves scare the deer off (or eat them)

"wolves opportunistically attacked cattle" the only true thing in his quote.

He's blaming Diamond M for utilizing a grazing lease they lawfully acquired when WDFW didn't tell them a wolf den was nearby?  no one asked them to move the salt, yet Weilgus said they did it intentionally (dropped the cows on top of a wolf den). 

Weilgus is a fraud and liar.

 :yeah:

 :yeah: X2

He had a lot of company at WDFW..

Offline pianoman9701

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #11 on: July 11, 2018, 09:10:55 AM »
Had?
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Offline Cougartail

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #12 on: July 11, 2018, 09:23:17 AM »
Cattle scare deer? Interesting??? I'll have 3 of what ever he took..
« Last Edit: July 11, 2018, 09:29:38 AM by Cougartail »
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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #13 on: July 11, 2018, 09:26:57 AM »
He gotta pack a 357 'cause the ranchers are gonna kill him  :chuckle:   :rolleyes:   ya right, he's so full of BS. 

quote from the article:
They also knew that the ranch had set salt blocks nearby, which attract cattle, who lick them for the needed minerals. But even after the first livestock was confirmed killed in early July, no one moved the salt blocks, “and no one moved the livestock,” Wielgus said. Trail cameras used to monitor the pack showed that cows were all around the area through July. Once the area’s deer, a preferred prey, were scared off by the cows, wolves opportunistically attacked cattle, he said. Wielgus insists to this day that the Diamond M’s patriarch, Len McIrvin, could have been prodded by the state to take steps — quickly moving the salt blocks, removing cattle from the den site — to avoid serious problems.

those blocks have been there for years, the salt is in the dirt, the locations are memorized by the cattle.  WDFW did not tell Diamond M the wolves were "a couple miles away", which in that country might as well be 50 miles, you aren't going to know wolves are 2 miles away  :bash: 

Cattle do not "scare off all the deer"  total utter BS lie, the deer will walk right through a herd of cattle..the freaking wolves scare the deer off (or eat them)

"wolves opportunistically attacked cattle" the only true thing in his quote.

He's blaming Diamond M for utilizing a grazing lease they lawfully acquired when WDFW didn't tell them a wolf den was nearby?  no one asked them to move the salt, yet Weilgus said they did it intentionally (dropped the cows on top of a wolf den). 

Weilgus is a fraud and liar.

 :yeah:  Wielgus is just an anti-hunter who tries to force his beliefs onto the whole state! He is full of it, my best deer hunting in this state is on ranches that I hunt that are owned by cattle producers. The deer graze in the same fields with the cattle, they actually come from halfway up the mountain down into the fields to eat with the cattle. They could care less that the cattle are there. KF is exactly right, salt stays in the ground forever, until the animals consume all the dirt that has any salt residue from years of rains. The guy should have been fired after his voodoo research was exposed!
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Offline Cougartail

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Re: New York Times Article about Rob Wielgus
« Reply #14 on: July 11, 2018, 09:32:28 AM »
A herd of cattle is the safest place for deer. Plenty of eyes looking around make a great early warning system!
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