Restoring the Balance: What Wolves Tell Us about Our Relationship with Nature

by John A. Vucetich

For more than a quarter century, celebrated biologist John Vucetich has studied the wolves, and the moose that sustain them, of the boreal forest of Isle Royale National Park, an island in the northwest corner of Lake Superior. During this time, he has witnessed both the near extinction of the local wolf population, driven largely by climate change, and the intensely debated relocation of other wolves to the island in an effort to stabilize and maintain Isle Royale's ecosystem health. In Restoring the Balance, Vucetich combines environmental philosophy with field notes chronicling his day-to-day experience as a scientist. Examining the fate of wolves in the wild, he shares lessons from these wolves and explains their impact on humanity's fundamental responsibilities to the natural world.

Vucetich's engaging narrative and unique, clear-eyed perspective provide an accessible course in wolf biology and behavioral ecology. He tackles profound unresolved questions that will shape our future understanding of what it means to be good to life on earth: Are humans the only persons to inhabit Earth, or do we share the planet with uncounted nonhuman persons? What does a healthy relationship with the natural world look like? Should we intervene in nature's course in order to care for it? Touching on the triumph and tragedy of how wolves kill moose to the Shakespearian drama of wolves' social lives, Vucetich comments on ravens, mice, winter ticks, and even a life-changing encounter he shared with a toad.

Vucetich produces exquisite insight by masterfully connecting his observations to a far-reaching history of ideas about the environment. Combining natural history and memoir with fascinating commentary on humanity's relationship with nature, Restoring the Balance evokes our connections with wolves as fellow apex predators, demonstrating how our shifting views on nature have implications for both their survival and ours. This book will be treasured by any thoughtful reader looking to deepen their relationship with nature and learn about the wolves of Isle Royale along the way.

Genres: Nonfiction, Wolves

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Matt Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wolves and other large carnivores occupy charismatic roles as keystone species within ecosystems, serving simultaneously as salient symbols for nature writ large and as physical embodiments of human meaning-making regarding our place and responsibility in a more-than-human world. John Vucetich's Restoring the Balance: What Wolves Tell Us about Our Relationship with Nature is a formidable exploration grounded in the ecology of predator and prey dynamics, their shared ecosystems, and the human contexts that determine their fate. This book is an account of the world's longest-running predator–prey study on Isle Royale, in Lake Superior, in the United States, unfolding through the lives and deaths of wolves and moose within the island wilderness, set against a scientific and policy debate over whether to reintroduce wolves in the face of their possible extinction, a burgeoning moose population, and the severe impacts on the forest ecology. Broadly, it contemplates the global loss of biodiversity and ecosystem health and the philosophical quandaries of when, where, and how to intervene in a crisis of our own making....

Full review in BioScience at: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

[Jane Somers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from John, and he taught me that some of my assumptions about the correct way to approach nature were wrong. I especially loved the field notes and the way they gave me an insight into the work John does on Isle Royale. It made me think about the way we judge things like “all natural” beyond just the parts I thought I was too smart to be caught up in. I loved his references to art and literature and even a few goofy current cultural topics.
Full disclosure: John is family, specifically my not-husband’s brother in law. I know him as a brilliant sailor, a great teacher, and an all around good guy.