“In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf…. I was young then…. I thought because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunter’s paradise…. Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves…. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anemic desuetude, and then to death…. I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives I mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer…. Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men.”

–Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac.