Kris' Blog

Hope this one flies off the shelves!

This is the cover art for my new book. It comes out October 13, 2011. Can’t wait!

Wolves: Settlement Agreement Reached On Wolf Recovery  (Reprint from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition Summary)

What’s Happening: Wolf management in the Northern Rockies took a step forward Friday, March 18, when a coalition of 10 conservation groups — including GYC — announced a legal settlement with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The agreement was filed in a federal district court in Missoula, where the court reviewed it six days later and will decide soon whether to support it. Read the press release from the 10 groups here, the statement from the Department of the Interior here and find out what it all means in GYC’s detailed fact sheet.

If the court OKs the settlement, wolf management will return to the states of Montana and Idaho. Meanwhile, Endangered Species Act protections will be retained in the states where wolves remain threatened: Wyoming, Oregon, Washington and Utah.

Under the settlement, the Department of the Interior will conduct rigorous scientific monitoring of wolf populations and have independent scientific review from an expert advisory board in three years.

GYC sees the settlement as a workable, science-based solution that will ensure sustainable wolf populations in the Northern Rockies.  s. It will enable Montana and Idaho to show they can manage wolves and provide time to work with Wyoming on an acceptable plan.

Nobody has benefited from the ongoing conflict over wolves in the Northern Rockies — least of all wolves. We believe this agreement is in the best short- and long-term interest of people and wolves in the Northern Rockies, not to mention the integrity of the Endangered Species Act.

You can read the settlement agreement here.

The settlement comes on the heels of a 2010 annual report showing the Northern Rockies wolf populations holding steady. A minimum of 1,651 wolves in 244 packs, and 111 breeding pairs roam Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, with 500 wolves calling Greater Yellowstone home. Montana and Wyoming wolf populations grew slowly while Idaho’s showed a slight decline. This is good news for wolves who are proving themselves resilient and adaptable across the region even as the politics surrounding wolf recovery continue to deteriorate.

So far none of the congressional attempts to circumvent the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and strip protections from wolves have moved through Congress. However, the threat still remains. Several bills have been introduced to the 112th Congress ranging from an effort to permanently prohibit listing in the Lower 48 to laws focused strictly on Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Now more than ever it’s important to work toward a resolution of the wolf controversy that institutes science-based management in the Northern Rockies.

Read about the wolf plans in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. View wolf population trends for these three states here.

The Issue: The return of the gray wolf to the northern Rockies has been one of the greatest conservation success stories and possibly the most controversial. Since the reintroduction in 1995, wolf numbers have steadily increased in the GYE. In 2009, wolves were removed from Endangered Species Act protections in Idaho and Montana, with ESA protections continuing in Wyoming. GYC and several other conservation groups successfully opposed this illegal piecemeal approach to delisting. In August, 2010 a federal court restored Endangered Species Act protections to wolves, canceling fall wolf hunts and triggering a severe political backlash that continues to reverberate in the halls of Congress and the state legislatures.

It’s been awhile. I’ve been working. Sadly I have no pictures of me working. It’s not much to look at. But I have been thinking too. Why is it so hard to write a book? For me its because I want to put too much into it. That’s why I have to write in intense horrible clumps of time. Otherwise I’ll put a years worth of stuff inside one story , and it won’t be about the story, it will be about all the crazy junk that I’ve been thinking about for a year. It’s about focus. But focus hurts a little. Makes me doubt myself. Makes me wonder why I don’t get a real job. Makes me wonder what is real. And as always, what really matters?

My sister was obsessed with The Outsiders when I was growing up. So I used to make fun of the book out of sisterly love. But the phrase “Nothing gold can stay,” haunts me anyway.  Just look at the picture of the movie cast and you know that’s true. How did SE Hinton know that at 17?  I’m writing a book about outsiders right now. So far outside of themselves they can’t even get to their own stuff. But this week I’m going underwater with them. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Oh yeah. I’m full of  myself to be sure, but look how well that turned out for Tom Cruise.

Went to hang out with the high school class at for guide dogs today. Wonderful to see such motivated students and meet such a fine educator.

There is at least a foot of snow outside. I have been curled

the view from my study

under the Christmas tree for an hour thinking about a song a friend sent me. 75 and Sunny. I’m think Christmas is such a strange construct, but then, most of our traditions are. All I know is that  today I have all four kids home, no homework, my second book’s revision is in and approved, my head is cavorting with ideas for the day and the new book. There is a mess in the kitchen, a list of things to do in my pocket, and a shelf full of questions in my head, but today I’m going to build a snow fort.

We’re going to get snow and rain all week. I feel sunny.

Wherever you are, whoever you are, I hope you are feeling sunny too… Merry Christmas!

It’s interesting when you learn things about yourself. Like that you are a giant ham and that you LOVE a giant room full of kids that kind of dig reading. I used to think I was shy. Huh. The bonus is that Leann Moody gave me a new  pet, an amazing reading dragon I named Hermes,  and Zeus and the boys gave me their new recording on Itunes, “Life Like a King.” PS Tyler, thanks for hanging out.

UCTE/LA Fall Conference

Friday at 8:00 am, BYU Conference Center

“Words, Wolves, and Other Things that Make the World Bigger.”

I’ll be speaking about how literacy and language shapes our world.

Utah Humanities Book Festival

Salt Lake Library, Panel at 11:00 am

“What Idea Are You?”

I’m not sure what idea I am. I hope I’m the one that wakes  me up at four in the morning.