Ten years ago, Ian McAllister and his wife Karen published one of the most influential Canadian books ever.

The Great Bear Rainforest (Harbour) generated legislation to protect one of the northern hemisphere's richest unprotected wildlife habitats-the main B.C. habitat for grizzlies.

After provincial and federal governments pledged $60 million to preserve 1.2 million hectares of the largest intact temperate rainforest left on earth, Time magazine heralded the young couple as "Environmental Leaders for the 21st Century.";

But as founding members of the Raincoast Conservation Society, Ian and Karen McAllister believed mainstream environmental organizations-such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and Forest Ethics-had struck a compromise with industry and government that was unacceptable.

Keeping an arms-length from the negotiations, the McAllisters settled in the tiny west coast outport of Shearwater on Denny Island where they have raised their first child.

And their conservation crusade continues.

Over a five-year period, Ian McAllister has repeatedly returned to the rainforest to track wolves for his new natural history title, The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts Of The Great Bear Rainforest (Greystone $45).

In June, freelancer Andrew Findlay joined McAllister aboard his trimaran Habitat to sail up the serpentine Roscoe Inlet in search of hard-to-find wolves in the lush estuaries near the head of the fjord.
He sends this report.

Now somewhat of a loner in the B.C. conservation movement, it's not surprising that Ian McAllister is drawn to wolves as subject matter for his new book.

Growing up in Victoria, while other kids flocked to the shopping mall, Ian McAllister boated Vancouver Island's west coast exploring tidal pools, surge channels and inlets with his father.

"Over the years I've spent three, perhaps four months alone, at a time, in these inlets looking for wolves,"; says McAllister, as we motor through a narrow passage near the entrance of Roscoe Inlet which the Heiltsuk people call the Gateway. "It's been at times very frustrating but also very rewarding.";

Anyone who has tried to track and photograph wolves soon realizes they would have almost as much success capturing a shooting star or a bolt of lightning. But McAllister has maintained a soft spot for these animals, recording the elusive carnivores on film with a Zen-like commitment. It's the same sort of tenacity that enabled him to fight so effectively for the preservation of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Wolves occupy a curious, and one might say unenviable, position in the animal kingdom, at least as far as humans perceive them. Hunters malign them for killing "their"; game. Ranchers ostracize them for preying on livestock. And popular literature often casts them in an unfairly sinister light.

For McAllister, wolves are anything but cold, bloodthirsty creatures. They are intelligent and fascinating animals, highly attuned to their environment and able to use cunning, skill and strength to hunt and kill prey. To gather material for the book, McAllister spent weeks and months following wolf packs, allowing time for the canines to become accustomed to his scent and presence. He has enough anecdotes from his trips to fill a stack of notebooks.

"There's incredible variability in wolves on the coast. In a span of just 20 nautical miles you can go from wolves that prey on deer and bear to wolves that have a totally marine-based diet,"; McAllister says.

Sometimes you needn't see wolves to sense their presence. During springtime in the rich tidal estuaries of the central coast, unlike bears that meander in seemingly chaotic patterns in search of chocolate lilies and cow parsnip, wolves leave purposeful straight paths through the lush sedges as they move stealthily between the timber and tide lines. Such ecological subtleties are revealed only to the patient observer.

McAllister describes seeing a black-tailed deer grazing contentedly within 50 yards of a wolf pack that lay concealed in the tall grass. Though the wolves had gone days without a fresh kill, they neither lifted their muzzles nor made any suggestion of a chase. Evidently the predators calculated the cost of giving pursuit and decided that there would be other, more rewarding opportuni-
ties.

McAllister has also observed a symbiotic relationship between wolves and ravens. Just as the noisy squawking of ravens alerts wolves to the presence of carrion, ravens often descend to pick over the remains of a carcass left behind by wolves.

After three days in Roscoe Inlet, we had almost given up hope of finding wolves. The estuaries we explored were full of signs-fresh scat, a palm-sized print in the mud, and coarse hair on a salmonberry bush next to a forest game trail. Then as we motored back down the inlet, McAllister spotted a lone black wolf with white paws standing on a shoreline granite bluff, casually watching our passage.
As quickly as it appeared, the wolf vanished like a ghost into the rainforest. And Ian McAllister vanished from the wolf's sight-a brief meeting of the minds.

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--review by Andrew Findlay

[BCBW 2007]