Wolves Prompt Howls of Delight, Dismay

Pushing deeper into the woods that extend across northwestern Maine toward the Canadian border, John Chase becomes more alert to the sights and sounds around him.

He’s approaching wolf country.

“We’re less than 100 miles from real, live wolves running around in the woods,” Chase says as he heads north on U.S. 201 toward Jackman, the gateway for truckers and tourists traveling to and from Quebec City.

Chase believes that wolves already have migrated into Maine and--if given the protection they need--are on the verge of a historic recolonization after a century-long absence.

“I think they’re probably here as scattered individuals,” he says. “Once a male and a female find each other, establish a pack and mate, then they’re here. That’s the trick.”

The 41-year-old high-school biology teacher from Monson takes to the woods whenever he can, looking for signs of an adaptive predator whose potential return to the Northeast has evoked strong feelings from friends and foes alike.

A recent study indicated that wolf populations in Quebec are more likely to expand into Maine than to the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Maine offers three times as much potential habitat--17,000 square miles--and there are fewer roads and developed areas to block wolves from reaching it.

The study, commissioned by the Wildlife Conservation Society, pinpoints two corridors where wolves could cross the ice-covered St. Lawrence River and move southeastward across the farmland of southern Quebec to the more alluring woods of Maine.

“There are still questions about how permeable the St. Lawrence is,” said Professor Daniel Harrison of the University of Maine, co-author of the study. “It’s not a barrier, but it’s certainly a filter. Animals can get across it, but how many animals that hit the river actually cross it: That’s the real question.”

As the prospect of the wolf’s return begins to take hold in Maine, emotions run high about an animal demonized in folklore and “Little Red Riding Hood” yet lionized as the embodiment of wilderness values and ecological well-being.

Chase’s group, the Maine Wolf Coalition, supports natural recolonization, seeking support from wildlife officials for education and protection measures.

The conservation group RESTORE: The North Woods, which promotes the establishment of a 3.2-million-acre wilderness preserve in northern Maine, goes a step further. It endorses reintroduction of wolves, as has been done at Yellowstone National Park, if such a step is necessary to meet its goal of wolf recovery.

“Bringing back the wolf begins the process of making the North Woods whole again,” said Kristin DeBoer of RESTORE. “It’s the keystone predator in the ecosystem. When that predator is gone, the ecosystem is out of balance.”

Arrayed on the other side is the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, whose executive director, George Smith, views wolf restoration as a misguided effort rooted in romantic notions about wolves.

In reality, wolf programs would siphon off scarce dollars from more worthy fish and game activities, Smith said. He questioned the rationale for supporting the introduction of a predator that threatens a moose herd that has benefited hunters and moose-watchers alike.

“Wolves eat 5 to 10 pounds of meat every day. That’s 20 to 40 Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s,” Smith said. “The impact on moose and deer would be enormous.”

Other issues come into play. Some who depend on the logging industry fear that the endangered Eastern timber wolf could emerge as Maine’s spotted owl, jeopardizing jobs and profits.

On the other side is the hope that the presence of wolves could spawn a new wave of ecotourism, as it has in Minnesota, the state with the largest wolf population in the Lower 48.

Whether there are wolves in Maine at this moment remains unclear.

The poster child for wolf recovery in Maine is a 67-pound female that was shot and killed by a Pennsylvania bear hunter near Moosehead Lake in 1993. The first of its species to be documented in Maine in perhaps a century, the wolf was verified through DNA analysis.

DNA testing on a wolf-like animal killed last fall by a trapper near Aurora, in eastern Maine, has yet to be completed. That animal was an 81-pound male, and even those who oppose the return of wolves to Maine have little doubt it was the real thing.

The state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which conducts tracking surveys in 75 townships in northwestern Maine, has found large canine tracks that could have come from either coyotes or wolves.

“Being close to existing populations in Quebec, it’s entirely possible that wolves occasionally stray into Maine,” said wildlife biologist Craig McLaughlin, who noted that his department cannot afford to devote a lot of time or money investigating their presence.

In any event, McLaughlin said, public attitudes--not available habitat--will prove to be the critical issue.

“If people are not going to tolerate wolves, we will not have wolves in Maine,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. It’s not a habitat issue; it’s a social issue.”

Shaping those attitudes is one of the principal objectives of the Maine Wolf Coalition, which has sought to educate the people of Maine about wolf migration and is keeping tabs on reports of wolf sightings by means of a statewide telephone hotline.

Nearly 100 reports have been received over the last two years. One of the largest concentrations of reports has come in the area around Parlin Pond, the unorganized township that Chase visited on a recent tracking survey.

During daylight, with a few inches of fresh snow on the ground, he hops in his four-wheel-drive truck and cruises the logging roads that crisscross the region, scanning the banks along the sides for the telltale prints of the wolf.

The first set of tracks spotted along a snowbank triggers a rush of optimism as Chase takes out his ruler and makes a few measurements.

“Three-and-a-quarter inches. This is good. This is too good,” he says, pushing over the bank and into the woods to see where the tracks lead. But the pursuit soon ends in disappointment. An impression of the front pads turns up moments later and makes it plain that a rabbit--not a wolf--had left the tracks.

More rabbit tracks and plenty of moose tracks show up later that afternoon, but no sign of a wolf. Conditions weren’t right to try to locate a wolf by howling--it’s done after dusk and when there’s little wind to keep the sound from carrying--but Chase demonstrates his skill by letting loose with a set of piercing cries.

“They can hear six miles away, but we can hear them only within a mile,” he says.