I hope you took the time to read Michael Jamison's piece in last Sunday's Territory section of the Missoulian.

His story about Cristina Eisenberg's research into the way relationships among predator and prey profoundly shape the broader landscape was particularly timely, in light of the opening of general hunting season across the state on that same day. It was timely, of course, because this year, for the first time, wolves are fair game for hunters who choose to pony up the money for a tag.

Sometimes, amid the din and clamor surrounding the issues of natural resource management, I think we lose sight of the fact that this natural world - which we rely upon to provide us with what we need to survive on this planet - has always worked best when all the pieces that were here in the first place are still in working condition.

Here in Montana, where we have at our very doorsteps access to much of the natural world that remains relatively intact, it might be reasonable to expect that we share a certain sensitivity to the benefits of keeping it that way. But it seems to me that every one of us, in one way or another, finds a rationale to set that notion aside when it comes to our own interests. And when those interests are threatened, for one reason or another, emotion takes over and reason has a way of going out the window.

A recent example of that thinking is the public concern over perceived wolf depredations on elk populations in some areas. I'm neither qualified to nor interested in making any pronouncements on just what the effect of wolves on elk populations has been. I do, however, find it somewhat mystifying that many people seem to actually think human beings have some innate right to claim the elk populations as their own to predate upon.

I hunt elk. In fact, I enjoy my days afield in pursuit of elk about as much as anything I get to do in the great outdoors. And, yes, I have noticed that elk behavior seems to have changed since wolves have appeared on the scene in recent years. Just as one might expect, if it is obvious that a pack of wolves has been in the area lately, elk are not going to be standing around idly. But to my way of thinking, that just means that hunters have to work a little harder to find an elk. It can't be argued that we don't start out with a significant advantage over the game anyway, since we get to carry firearms or high-tech archery equipment.

As we embark on an era in which a formerly endangered species has now become a game animal, I believe it is useful to be reminded that the wolf plays a legitimate and necessary role on our landscape. I don't intend this to suggest that the concerns of those whose livelihoods can be impacted by wolves aren't valid. No human-concocted plan for the reintroduction of any species should be expected to be bug-free, and wolf reintroduction is no exception.

This fall, when I see wolf tracks in the snow when I am hunting elk, they will remind me once again that everything is connected.

I like that feeling.

Greg Tollefson is a freelance Missoula writer whose column appears each week in Outdoors. He can be reached at gtollefson@bresnan.net.