I want to say a few words on behalf of my former neighbors—the Ninemile wolves. I neighbored with the Ninemile pack from 1992 to 1998, and I must say they were some of the best neighbors I've had anywhere. It was a rare and beautiful privilege to live among them.

I was raised among dairy farmers and agree with longtime Ninemile rancher Ralph Thisted (Missoulian, April 22) who likens predation to other acts of nature—disease, stillbirths and weather. You expect and absorb such losses. In Montana, ranchers and hobbyists are unusually lucky to receive compensation for certain predation losses. They cannot reasonably complain they are going broke because of wolves or being treated unfairly by federal agencies or wolf advocates.

Regretfully, and to make an already volatile situation worse, the biologists in charge sound and act more like vigilantes than scientists the public can trust. In mid-April, federal biologist Ed Bangs ordered agents to kill a gray wolf that was feeding on an elk carcass in the Ninemile. Agents were looking for a gray wolf that had killed a pet llama a few days prior. On April 11, a Missoulian article quoted Bangs as saying, "We aren't so sure that they got the right one. If we see another gray one in the area, we'll shoot it, too. We'll see if another one shows up." On April 18 agents did kill another wolf, a female this time, the fourth wolf killed in the valley in less than two months. On Aug. 1, Bangs was quoted as saying, "We are in lethal control mode for a couple of wolves ... Hopefully, we'll just pick them off and get rid of that behavior." What is the ethical or scientific rationale for "picking off" a couple of wolves that, like the gray wolves killed in April, may or may not be responsible for killing a llama? The public is entitled to some explanation for what, on the face of it, seems random slaughter of yet two more individuals that our federal stewards are charged with protecting.

The Ninemile pack has caused relatively few problems over the 12 years the wolves have lived up the valley. I should think that scientists would want to know why this level of predation is occurring now. Is the upper Ninemile Valley over-hunted and were wolves simply hungry in spring, a stressful time for denning families? Have fires—natural or prescribed—or drought or logging had some unexpected, negative impact on deer and elk populations? Are some natural or human-caused changes forcing wolves into the lower, more populated part of the valley?

The rational response is to study before you shoot and, importantly, to insist that Ninemile residents do their part in protecting their animals from predators. Why were Geri Ball's llamas pastured two miles from her home when her llama was killed recently? I'm genuinely sorry for her loss and for her llama. Yet how can we possibly justify killing more wolves when, judging from what we read in the media, Ball ignored advice biologists gave her after her losses in April? If ranchers and hobbyists choose to neighbor with wolves, it's wise to corral vulnerable animals near home at night and to use other precautions against natural predators, such as Maremma sheep dogs, dogs especially bred and trained to ward off wolves. A Maremma dog costs less than one llama. They are certainly worth research trials here in Montana, a state that kills more wolves than Wyoming and Idaho, even though we have fewer wolves than those states.

Finally, it's crucial to remember that the Ninemile pack is a naturally established pack. Biologists did not put them in the Ninemile; they are not designated an "inessential" population (unlike the Yellowstone wolves), and so they have full protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. I would like some reassurance that the letter of the law is being followed here, that these animals are receiving all legal protections guaranteed by the act. Surely we can find solutions that reflect the spirit of the act and satisfy unhappy Ninemile residents. Shooting may be an expedient short-term solution. But it's not necessarily right, and it does not serve the interests of endangered species over the longterm.

Over the longterm, predators and people are going to have to learn to neighbor together. Biologists charged with protecting endangered predator species could facilitate those relationships. Granted, such facilitation takes time, good people skills, money. But it's critical if wild—rather than micro-managed, zoo-like—populations are going to survive in the contiguous United States.

The Ninemile wolf pack is one of the precious few wild treasures left to the greater Missoula Valley, as wild and beautiful as the Rattlesnake and Bitterroot wilderness areas, as elk on Mount Jumbo, and eagles on the Clark Fork River. We're not willing to trade any of these wild places or animals for more hobby herds of llamas. But that's precisely the trade-off we're making up the Ninemile Valley.