Mountains understand things in ways people can't, at least according to Aldo Leopold. He was a hunter who, like most, viewed wolves as villains that kill livestock and wild deer. He believed that "... fewer wolves meant more deer and that no wolves would mean hunter's paradise." That opinion changed the day he actually killed a wolf, and he realized how necessary wolves are to a healthy environment.
In this story the narrator relates a story from when he was "... young and full of trigger itch." Since, he believed that fewer wolves meant more deer, so he, like many others, never passed up a chance to kill a wolf. According to the story, a friend and he fire repetitively into a pack of wolves. They kill a she-wolf and injure one of her pups while the rest flee. They are able to get close to the she-wolf in time to see "... a fierce green fire dying in her eyes." Then the narrator realized that, unlike people, the the wolves and mountain did not believe all wolves should die. As the years passed, he saw many states kill off their wolves, and as the wolves were removed he saw deer multiply and destroy the environment; "I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddle-horn." He realized unlike many others that wolves were needed to keep the environment stable and saw that diversity equals stability.
I agree with the author's view although my way of thinking did not change. Wolves may kill deer, but while this seems bad in the moment, it is actually good in the larger scale of things. The wolves are able to keep deer populations down thus making what deer survive stronger and lets the environment remain strong enough to support the deer and other animals. Wolves are as necessary to this environment as the base producers and the sun itself. Where there are no wolves, the deer overrun the ecosystem and eat themselves and others out of house and home. Each animal has its place in the environment.
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