Author Observed As Wolves And Park Ecosystem Adjusted

Mon., July 8, 1996

By Susan English susane@spokesman.com

Wolves are hot, about that there’s no doubt. Just take a glance at the outdoor or nature section of any book store. Books about wolves share space with books about running with the wolves.

Into this crowded field leaped author Gary Ferguson, who chronicles one year in the life of the first wolf pack reintroduced to the Yellowstone ecosystem. But this wasn’t just any year Ferguson picked to write about, rather it was the first year.

“This was a terrific opportunity because wolves had never been transplanted into an ecosystem, this was a historic event unequaled in American history,” Ferguson said in a phone interview last week from Portland, Ore.

Ferguson, a naturalist by training but a writer by profession, admits even he was skeptical about the need for yet another book about wolves when two publishers approached him about writing this one. “My first reaction was ‘Do we need another book about wolves?’ But I decided to do it because the return of a major predator into an ecosystem is a classic case of a big stone dropped into a pond and the effects ripple out to the shore.

“It’s a dream of a naturalist to watch those kinds of behavior - how the presence of wolves will affect other populations, to follow the threads of that story.”

Ferguson, who lives in Red Lodge, Mont., spent much of the year in Yellowstone just watching the wolves all day and writing on his solar-powered laptop in the back of his Chevy van at night.

Ferguson has been a free-lance writer for 15 years and his articles have appeared in magazines ranging from Outside to Sierra to Modern Maturity and he has written nine books on nature. He’s out on tour doing readings from “The Yellowstone Wolves” and his next book, “Spirits of the Wild,” a collection of nature myths from around the world, will be published by Clarkson Potter in the fall.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: Gary Ferguson, author of “The Yellowstone Wolves,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

Gary Ferguson, author of “The Yellowstone Wolves,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

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