Book Report: Wolf Time

1. Barbara J. Moritsch, Wolf Time (2020) (1/2/21)

This book begins with a death. Yet it is not a mystery. It is, in part, a sad story of ongoing hatred and decimation. But the book is also very much a celebration of an amazing species—communicative, playful, intelligent, social, and, as a top predator, a crucial part of the ecosystem. The goal of the book is both to instill appreciation for these exquisite creatures and to raise awareness of all that wolves are up against.

The story is told in two main strands. It begins (after a 2014 prologue) in 2018 as Sage, a wildlife biologist living outside Yosemite National Park, is roused by a scratching at her front door: two wolves, Issa and Tish. Not just any wolves, but old-soul wolves, who are able to speak to Sage, and she to them; they are also able to "merge" her into them and carry her to places and times where they can instruct her on just what it means to be a wolf in the wild. They need help, and Sage has been chosen to write their story. We then switch to 2010 and a household in Salmon, Idaho. Almost-twelve-year-old Blue has discovered a wolf den, which he shares with his younger, "special" sister, Sunny. Fascinated, they fall in love, and ultimately are called upon to help an injured wolf. The chapters proceed to alternate, Sage's continuing in real time in the present, Blue and Sunny's progressing through the years, until ultimately they merge. 

In the meantime, wolf hatred is all around, and we learn of ongoing, senseless death. The numbers of wolves in the United States have been plummeting, protections vanishing. Fear of wolves is deep within the human psyche, and violence is the result.

The book ends on a hopeful note, though I wonder if facts don't belie this optimism: On October 29, 2020, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service finalized a rule that removes all protections from gray wolves in the lower 48 states. As the Center for Biological Diversity put it in a news release, "The Service made its decision despite the fact that wolves are still functionally extinct in the vast majority of their former range across the continental United States." Here is a timeline for the rocky road that wolves have endured since they were first declared virtually extinguished in 1933, and then were officially listed as endangered in 1974—later, in 2003, reclassified as threatened, thanks to ongoing and successful reintroduction programs. A mere 6,000 wolves exist in the lower 48 today, on less than 10 percent of their historic range—down from 250,000 to as many as 2 million individuals historically. They honestly do need all the help they can get. (A portion of the proceeds from this book is being donated to the Center for Biological Diversity for their ongoing work on behalf of wolves.)

But back to Wolf Time, a book full of imagination and soul. Here are the opening three paragraphs of the book, to give an idea of the lovely lyricism of some of the writing:

A sharp-tipped crescent moon cast its pale glow over a solo wolf, a well-used deer path, and a remote mountain lake in central Idaho. Snow had fallen intermittently over the past three days, and the large, fluffy flakes muted the sounds of the night and softened the edges of the pines and rock outcrops that framed the lake.
     Moving at a steady trot, Tierra pushed easily through the soft blanket of snow that covered the path and wondered if the spring storm would ever end. The early spring conditions forced her to take the long way around the big lake; the ice was no longer thick enough to hold her weight. In a hurry, she'd travelled the better part of the day and stopped only for short breaks to catch her breath. Her family was waiting for her, relying on her to bring food.
     The rendezvous with the other members of the Blackline Pack lasted longer than expected. She'd been surprised to learn most of the wolves in the area already were on the move to get out of Idaho, heading east and south to the region called the Yellow Stone, which was rumored to be safe.

The book's epigraph, too, bears quoting, and heeding:

If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them, and what you do not know you will fear. What one fears one destroys.
                                        —Chief Dan George