"Engaging the Next Generation"

Dear Secretary Sally Jewell,

I am asking you on behalf of all kids who care about their environment and the wild animals who live in this country, not to delist the gray wolf from the endangered species list. Thanks to the endangered species list, the gray wolf, which was nearly extinct, was saved, and it was not just good for wolves, but for the entire environment. Every natural environment needs predators or there will be too many of the predator's prey. And the predator's prey eat too much grass, and it leads to an unbalanced environment. People like me are really worried that if you choose to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list, so many of them will be killed that they will never recover and neither will the land. Here in the Northeast, wolves have yet to come back even though our forests need them.  How can the Northeast ever welcome wolves if they’re not protected?

When I look into a wolf's eyes and hear it howl, it just makes me realize how awesome these animals really are. If everyone had the chance to meet a wolf, maybe it would end this argument about delisting the wolf from the endangered species list, and wolves would be safe. Secretary Jewell, before you make this decision, please go look into a wolf's eyes and hear it howl. 

Thank you,
Turner Burns, age 9

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"As a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unself- consciously to the
soughing of the trees."
~Valerie Andrews, A Passion for this Earth